Owl Hike

One of my favorite things to do in the evening is hike through a nearby woodland area looking for owls. In this area I have encountered both Barred owls and Great Horned owls.

I have noticed that the Barred owls seem to have isolated themselves to the upper hillside of the woodland and until recently the Great Horned owls have been in the lower section.  This didn’t surprise me since Great Horned owls and Barred owls compete for the same food and therefore the larger Great Horned owls often will attack Barred owls and drive them out of an area.

As a side note. I have become very familiar with the Great Horned owls in the area as over the last nine months I’ve been observing a family from the time they were in the nest to the emergence of two owlets that have grown and are currently learning to hunt. They have been a lot of fun to observe and photograph.

A few days ago, as I was up on the hillside scanning the trees for Barred owls, I came around a corner in the trail and about 50 yards away in the middle of some large maple trees, I noticed a figure out on a limb. I was fully expecting it to be a Barred owl but as I peered through my binoculars, I was surprised to see that it was a Great Horned owl. I thought to myself, was this one of the owls from down the hill or was this a new one? I took a few photographs from a distance but wanted to get closer. As I maneuvered off trail to get closer, waving my arms about while passing through numerous disgusting spider webs, the owl watched but did not seem to be alarmed at my presence. I slowly crept to within about 20 yards, but was having a difficult time getting a good composition since the sun was going down almost behind it. I moved positions, trying to find a good one without the sunlight coming through and blowing out the scene or other trees blocking the view. After taking a few more photos, I glanced away for only a moment and the owl was gone, without making a sound.

 As I started back down the trail towards the car, I glanced down at the end of my lens and noticed that it had a large spider web wrapped around it, complete with its owner. I hate spiders! That’s one thing about tromping out in the woods this time of year is that spiders and their webs are everywhere and it’s the ones you don’t see until it’s too late that get you. I expeditiously cleaned off the end of my lens and hoped that the web had not interfered with any of the photos that I had taken. I was almost at the bottom of the trail when I heard the call of one of the young Great Horned owls that I was familiar with. I glanced up and about ten feet above my head was the owl again. It looked like the same owl I had just photographed and had apparently followed me down the trail. The young owls are at an age now that I can no longer tell them apart from the adults other than by their call.  This got me wondering that maybe the Great Horned owls were expanding their territory to include the hillside since there are now more of them. What this means for the Barred owls is probably not good but I hope they can somehow find a way to coexist in the area.

More to come…. I better check myself over thoroughly for hitch hiking spiders.

Scott