A brave Mom defending her babies.

Posted on April 20, 2021 by dinajohnston

It was drizzling on and off in early February when I first caught a glimpse of the baby great horned owls at Fort Desoto. The two babies huddled together and Mom stayed with them on the nest when I first got there.

After the rain stopped and the sun was trying to peak out, Mom flew over to a tree across the trail. Looks like she was trying to wake up and stretch.

The black hooded parakeets were flying by, being loud and annoying. The owl paid little attention to the parakeets buzzing around.

All of a sudden Mom sits up and looks at something close by the nest.

We all turned around to see what Mom was looking at. An eagle had quietly landed on a branch right near the nest. The eagle started screaming and Mom flew off the nest and chased the eagle away. It all happened so fast that I did not even got a shot of the confrontation.

After chasing the eagle off, Mom came back and landed on the nest. This time she stayed on the nest for a while. The baby popped his head up for a few seconds then went back to sleep. It’s going to be fun watching these guys grow up.

All grown up

Posted on May 7, 2020 by dinajohnston

At the end of February I was able to stop by the owl nest and see the baby almost grown up. He was still pretty fuzzy but was looking more like an adult.

One of the parents was always close by.

Then in mid-March I stopped by again and the baby was looking all grown up. Almost as big as his parents. He was very curious, always looking around at the sounds of the birds and squirrels going by.

The morning was so nice that I hung around the park watching the fishing boats go by. This one was pulling up bait fish and getting followed by the pelicans looking for a handout.

The old trees in the park near the nest have a lot of personality.

It was the beginning of a great weekend.

Nature sorts itself out.

Posted on March 7, 2016 by dinajohnston

At first I was excited to see the great horned owl sitting on the nest. I was thinking soon we’ll have baby owls. Then I saw her stand up, pick up an egg and drop it as she was flying off. My heart just dropped. I’ve been told they know when something’s not right and will keep the nest clean if needed. Hopefully, that wasn’t the only egg on the nest. Last year this nest had two babies grow up. She flew off across the trail to another tree.

The osprey that are nesting near there were bothering her and flying close to her so she kept moving from tree to tree but she stayed close to the nest.

She eventually flew a bit farther away and then took off past the woods and I couldn’t see where she was going. A few minutes later I turned around to look at the nest and saw the below.

I didn’t see her fly back so I don’t know whether she snuck back to the nest or if the other parent had been there all along and I just didn’t realize she was also on the nest. Stay posted for baby updates.

Baby owls are growing up

Posted on April 5, 2014 by dinajohnston

Just a handful of the photogs that were at the owl’s nest on an early Sunday morning. We were all standing around waiting for them to wake up. That’s my camera set-up front and center. This was taken with my Iphone.

More pictures from the early March visit to the great horned owl’s nest to see the twins. They were growing up fast. They are so animated when they are looking around and have the funniest expressions. We were so excited to see both of them doing well this year since the year before one did not survive. I paid one more visit after this one a few weeks later. They were hopping from branch to branch. Pictures of that visit will be posted later.

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Tag Archives: owl nest

A brave Mom defending her babies.

All grown up

Nature sorts itself out.

Baby owls are growing up