Owlet Update

Well, my friend Victoria and I had quite an exciting evening watching the owls -- unfortunately, NONE of the photos that I took on Friday night came out worth a darn.

However, the shots I caught last night (Sunday, the last day of May) are "okay", and worth a quick post here.

Mark and I were quite surprised to see two of our owls (not sure if two owlets, or a babe and a parent ... so hard to tell from such a distance & in the dark) LAND ON THE BLUFF -- and how cool is that CA native shrub, whatever it is? it's silhouette looks like a violinist sitting, his back rounded to the left, facing the owls (to me, anyway - is it my migraine meds 'seeing' that !!???)

You'll have to keep in mind -- it was WAY DARK OUT, and my camera is just a Canon G9 -- so not capable of a lot of zoom, and not capable of great night shots --- I do have the most success using the ISO setting, which is meant for the inside of museums where you need a lot of light AND you can't use a flash.

how cool is this? one of them taking flight !

here we have ONE on the "power box" (closer to the pole) and one that just brought dinner (so, presumably a parent) sitting on the wire

These ALL had to be "edited" -- they have been cropped, they have had their brightness, contrast, and some even the color -- adjusted. But I don't have PhotoShop, so they're not all that great.

owl moved OFF power box and onto wire ...

Still, they're a testimony to our Great Horned OWL BABIES and their parents, and we're pretty stoked !!!

Thanks for following our owls - I know that a lot more of you read these posts than comment, 'cause I get e-mails about the owls and how cool you think the posts & photos are ... I sure wish you could comment on here ... bloggers LOVE comments, you know :-) !!!

-- D.

our OWLETS have fledged !!!

If you don't follow my other blog, http://iamprincessmagpie.blogspot.com ... then you haven't yet heard of or seen my BEST SHOT MONDAY (BSM) image for this week -- it's a photo I took on Monday evening, standing right beneath one of our two Great Horned Owlets :-) ... aka, Bubo Virginianus.

And I just learned that a GH owlet (as I refer to them; it's probably not the technical term for a baby GHO) is known as a "brancher" when it first leaves the nest - not a "fledgling". Interesting.

Owlet Number One {smaller of the 2}

So I thought I should post a number of the images I captured on Monday (and a couple from Tuesday evening, of one of the adults perched atop a nearby Torrey Pine tree), for you all to enjoy.


Owlet # 1, again

this is one of the proud parents - because it seems smaller than the Mama we've been seeing, we think this is Papa G.H. Owl


the adorable Owlet # 1 {again}

and yes, Owlet # 1 again !!!

So these last two shots were taken around 7:45 pm Tuesday, 5/26/09 - you can make out the silhouette of the Great Horned Owl atop the Torrey Pine tree -- right?

and I hope that if you click on this one, it will open up for you, because the eyes are bright on the owl atop the tree, caught by the flash of the camera !!

That's it for Owl Pics, friends.

If you want more information about the Great Horned Owl, check out these links:

http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Bubo&species=virginianus

(this one has links to Owl Calls, but I could not get those to play ... if you do, great! the info is fantastic, though, so worth including this link)

http://www.iwrc-online.org/kids/Facts/Birds/ghow.htm

(another great link, especially for kids)

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Horned_Owl/id

(and this link will take you to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the link here to the voice DOES work ... check it out!)

Hope this was informative and interesting, dear readers.

:-)

Davielle