Sitting

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Female owl sitting on her eggs.

I didn’t think Great Horned Owls used the same nesting spot two years in a row, but this pair of owls proved me wrong.

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Male owl standing guard.

Owl Season’s Underway

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A couple we often see in the bosque, told me they had just discovered the nesting place of a pair of owls last night. When I got to the nesting area a few minutes later, there were two owls to be seen — a larger owl in a cottonwood, and another, smaller owl, in an elm tree next to the cottonwood.  The larger female was out taking a break, I presumed.  She was hooting up a storm on her perch in the cottonwood. The smaller owl was perched on a limb, a silent sentry, very alert, guarding the area.   The sun had been down for fifteen minutes or so, forcing me to bump up my ISO to 3200 to get a somewhat sensible shutter speed. As I was photographing the owls, a chorus of coyotes started howling from the undergrowth all around where I was standing beneath the owls. The scene became surreal as I was standing in a small clearing, darkness falling all around, the owl hooting from above, and coyotes yipping and howling in surround sound.

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Hooting. I wonder if you pushed up on the tail feathers of a Great Horned Owl if it would hoot.
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She spies something in the distance.
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Ready. Set…
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¡Hasta la vista!

Upchuck and Personal

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“Hey paparazzo! What the hoot is up? It’s been awhile?
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“Who’s that with you? Oh! Of course. Hi paparazza!”
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“Ak! Hold on a minute. Ak Ak Ak Ak…”
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“AAaaakK!”
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“Sorry. I had to upchuck a pellet. Pretty after glow. Carry on. Where were we?”

 

Hoot Owl at Dusk

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While walking back home in the dark from what turned out to be a 6.5 mile walk, I could hear the owls hooting at each other. As I looked around to see where the hoots were coming from, I saw what looked like a large cat at the tip top of a cottonwood, backlit by the afterglow of the sunset. The owl was too far away, and it was too dark, for me to get anything but silhouettes of it.

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