Somehow I don’t think dad was too happy I found him. Mama was hunkered down in the nest and all I could see were tail feathers so I began the hunt for dad. It took me a good while but I did finally find him in one of his favorite hiding spots.

He was actually far more well-hidden than this picture indicates as I had to lay down on the ground to get below the intervening brush to get a clear view. So worth it.

Driving home from my photo excursion yesterday I spotted a large nest and the unmistakable “ears” of a great horned owl sticking up. That, of course, required investigation. I went to the next exit then backtracked along the frontage road. There I found mama sitting in her home and likely on eggs or with little ones under her. Being only 150 feet from a busy interstate probably doesn’t allow her much rest.

The follow up picture to the image of mom I shared this morning. As I mentioned, I hadn’t seen this pair in quite a while so was happy to spot them yesterday. While mom was easy to find since she was in the nest, this guy took a good bit more work.

I spent more than a half hour walking through the trees, stopping every 10 feet and studying the branches, trying to find him. I was just about to give up when I finally saw him. As usual with these guys, there weren’t too many options for getting pics with only one or two angles.

I like this shot as it does a nice job showing how amazingly well they blend in with the environment – the pattern of his back nearly perfectly matches the tree.

Finally! Over a half dozen visits in recent months to this spot and I had not seen my great horned owl friends. I was growing concerned.

Knowing owls are starting to sit on their nests, I went back yesterday and thankfully, there she was, hunkered down and certainly on eggs. As usual, she put on her happy face, no doubt pleased to see me. 😀

I’ll be looking forward to seeing more of her and her little ones in the coming months. Want to see dad? Check back this afternoon and I’ll share his pic too.

This little one seemed to think it had a pretty good hiding place. Clearly not. 😉 

This past Sunday I checked on the last, lingering owlets of the nests that I watch and found the family all doing well.

The young ones were hanging out in two different spots of the same tree while mama was in an adjacent tree. All gave me some pretty neat shots but this was by far my favorite. So cute and those big eyes were awesome!

Looking a bit damp and definitely giving a grumpy look, these two owlets looked like they would have preferred some drier conditions. Ha!

These are about the last, lingering owlets from any of the nests I watch. They are still pretty young and while not flying yet, they have migrated from the nest tree to one with a bit more cover.

Great horned owl owlets will leave the nest, usually in a less than graceful fall, then move to neighboring trees, walking across the ground and then climbing the other tree. Dad and Mom will continue to feed them but, eventually, start coaxing them to try to fly to them to get their meals.

One of those lucky finds. A couple of weeks ago I was scouting some area open spaces looking for foxes when I spotted this nest.

At the time, I could see one owlet with mama in it. This past weekend I went by again and saw two golden eyes peering over the rim. It seems like there might be another owlet in front of the one but I can’t tell for sure.

After snapping some pics of the little one I said, “I wonder where mama is?” Well, as it turns out she was perched in the tree directly above where I stopped my truck.