Great Horned Owl Family 001

Karla and I were in the Twin Cities this weekend visiting friends. We found out about a Great Horned owl nest in Silverwood Park in St. Anthony. It wasn’t hard to find the nest, you just had to follow the other photographers heading that way. This nest has been on Facebook many times and is quite popular.

GreatHornedOwlFamily001

Great Horned Owl family 002

At one point there were about 30 digital cameras all clicking away at the same time. These guys might be the most photographed owls around.

GreatHornedOwlFamily002

Great Horned Owl Family 003

A perfect landing.

GreatHornedOwlFamily003

Great Horned Owl Family 004

The little ones are so camouflaged that if you didn’t see the adult with its huge yellow eyes you could easily miss them.

GreatHornedOwlFamily004

Great Horned Owl Family 005

It was a great nest to photograph as the nesting cavity faced the trail making for easy access. Great Horned owls are one of the earliest nesting birds and keep the eggs warm in subzero temperatures. The babies were growing fast. When the mom was sleeping by the nest they seem to call up to her to wake up and get lunch.

GreatHornedOwlFamily005

Great Horned Owl Family 006

We did see one of the babies regurgitate a pellet. Pellets are composed of bone, fir and the other unwanted parts of their meal. You can see this little guy shaking its head and coughing up the pellet.

GreatHornedOwlFamily006

Great Horned Owl Family 007

They seemed very content even with several people watching them. Mom would open one eye every so often just to make sure the photographers were behaving themselves.

GreatHornedOwlFamily007

Great Horned Owl Family 008

It started to snow the last morning we watched the owls. At that point I was the only photographer there. The snow didn’t seem to bother the owls.

GreatHornedOwlFamily008

Great Horned Owl Baby

Here is what the babies will look like in the near future. I got this photo a few years ago when the parents were feeding this one on the ground.

GreatHornedOwlBaby