Birds – Great Horned Owl
by Dusty ~ August 25th, 2010. Filed under: Birdwatching etc, Nature Notes, On The Road.It has been a good year for Owls. These two Great horned owls entertained me at the fantastic Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon back in April. This impressive and huge birds rival our Eagle owl in size though they are far more accommodating. Especially when you consider I have seen only one Eagle owl in all my years birding across Europe and 7 Great horned owls across the US.
Bubo virginianus
The first one I saw this trip was in daylight silently flying across a small clump of cottonwood trees. I had disturbed it from its daytime roost. Gently, for such a powerful bird, it landed in another tree and shuffled itself up against the trunk and settled back down to sleep. Although I had seemingly ruffled it from its roost once it had resettle it seemed relatively unconcerned as I took a few pictures.
The second caused me to break hard on the road back to Burns. There it was perched at the peak of a telegraph pole. This bird’s demeanour was strikingly different to repose of the roosting bird. This bird although still only spinning it’s head to scan in all directions was posed for the kill. You could feel it’s tight powerful energy. It’s bright yellow discerning eyes seeking the slightest movement in the grass it’s bulk ready to pounce.
