Thursday, April 25, 2013
...will be revealed tonight at my talk on the owls' nesting and owlets at the Maplewood Public Library in Maplewood, MO from 7:00-8:00pm. Sorry for the tease but I hope that many folks can attend tonight's talk!
As some of you know I gave a talk at the Maplewood Public Library in January. The talk was a success and with sixty-five people in attendance it was the largest audience the library had ever had for a lecture! It was great to see so many owl friends, addicts, and mentees in the audience and to meet and help create new ones. The library generously allowed me to film the lecture and post it on my YouTube page as you can see below.
The talk was such a success that the library has asked me to do a series of talks focusing on specific aspects of the owls' lives. The first of these talks will be again at the Maplewood Public Library tonight, Thursday, April 25 from 7:00-8:00m. This talk is called "Forest Park Owls: Nesting and Owlets" and as the title indicates it will be the owls' nesting behavior and their offspring, the ever delightful owlets. Here are links to the library's FAQ with directions to the library (it is both easy and tricky to get there!) and a brochure for the talk itself.
Thanks for reading and I hope to see you tonight! As a way of making amends for my teasing the owlets' names here is a picture of the two older owlets from April 11.
And a video of Sarah feeding on an Eastern Cottontail Rabbit on April 2.
I am happy to announce that the third and youngest owlet fledged! Not only that it made into The Wooded Area and it is with the rest of the family. Fledging occurred sometime between Monday, April 8 and Tuesday April 9. I wish I had been able to see the owlet fledge but I was thrilled to find it yesterday and then learn of its progress. The owlet fledged two weeks after the first fledgling we observed. Why? This owlet is the smallest, youngest of the three owlets. The owlets of Great Horned generally fledge between 6-8 weeks of age. The first two went on the early side of this range and the last one on the late side. Perhaps the owlet liked having the shelter and room in the nest and so long as it was getting fed all was good. I was confident that fledging would occur and that it was just a matter of when and not if.
I was unable to stay long in the park last night but I made the most of my time. I arrived and headed straight to the nest but did not see the nestling. I was not overly surprised or concerned. Just the day before I had looked in the nest and not seen anyone. When I returned to the nest a short while later the nestling was clearly visible in the hollow. The nestling did a similar peekaboo routine on Saturday morning.
With the nestling not visible I continued on and found Charles in his favorite conifer. Sarah and the two fledglings were in some of their favored recent perches including one tree that I am beyond overdue in naming. A name, be it practical or poetic, has yet to come to mind. I ran into a couple of photographers, Bill and Rafi, who have become devotees of the owls. We chatted for a while until I headed out to watch Sarah and the owlets for a different perspective before heading back to the nest area.
On my way back I scanned around to see if the owlet had fledged but turned up empty. A second look at the nest revealed no owlet so I decided to look in The Training Area. I walked slowly and carefully forward when I heard a faint clacking sound. I wondered if it my be an owlet bill clacking at me so I pressed on but now with even more care and caution. An owl sixth sense/ESL (Experience, Skill, Luck) moment gave me pause and nudged my head down and to the left and there at the base of the tree was the third owlet! Bloody hell.
I was only five feet from the now fledgling. This the one of the closest I had ever been to an owlet. What a beauty. The owlet was 20-30 feet "behind" The Fleur Des Lis Tree making it about 20-40 yards from the nest and 100 yards from the rest of the family. The owlet looked at me and again I heard what sound like bill clacking but it, happily, was not the owlet never mind one of the adults bill clacking at me. I observed bare but budding tree limbs hitting each other in the breeze and making the clacking sound. Whew!
I backed away from the owlet to give the owlet its due space. Owlets will often spend time on the ground and I was glad that it was so well hidden in vines that covered the ground and the base of this and another tree. Even with this knowledge, I was concerned about the owlet's condition. I hoped that it had not been injured during fledging. The owlet turned its head but otherwise it did not move. I also worried about predators. Over the years I have seen Red Foxes, Minks, Raccoons, Common Snapping Turtles, Red-tailed Hawks and Coyotes in the core of the owls territory.
My phone rang quietly and it was Wendy and she was thrilled to hear about the owlet and she shared my concerns. I delicately checked out the owlet from a couple of different perspectives seeking to gain further insight into its condition.
I went back to where I had originally seen the owl and it gave me a funny look. It took me a moment to realize that it was doing a neat owlish maneuver, namely focusing each eye independently.
Each owl eye can act as its own separate camera lens, which is an amazing adaptation. I have only seen this a few times and rarely have been able to document it. Even knowing this, I hoped that the owlet was in good shape after its big transition from nestling to fledgling. It was not obviously injured so I did not take any action other than hoping it would join the rest of the family soon and/or get fed by Sarah.
As I watched the owlet from afar I saw my friend, Chad Henry, and his now toddler daughter, Camille, heading my way. In 2006 Chad and his wife, Sarah, had twins, Sean and Maddie. That was the same year that I saw the owls nest. The two owlets that year made me think of the humans twins and their parents and inspired me to name the adult female, Sarah, after the twins' mom. Prior to that she was just called "The Female." The whole Henry family are keen supporters of the owls and my work with them. Chad was excited to learn about and see the new fledgling and while Camille may not have been able to see the well-camouflaged owlet, she did delight in the antics of a nearby pair of Eastern Grey Squirrels.
I called my friend and owl mentee, Brenda Hente, who I knew was coming to the park that night. Brenda was on her way and was amazed at the news of the fledgling. She arrived and was able to meet Chad and Camille. Chad and Brenda had not met but had heard so much about each other from me so it was good to finally have them meet. Brenda was happy to see the fledgling and she and Chad shared my concerns and assessment of the situation. Brenda and I agreed to keep the fledgling news in limited distribution until we were more confident that all was well with the last and latest fledgling. By now I was overdue leaving the park so we went our separate ways after I told Brenda where to find the rest of the owls. Upon arriving home, I showed Wendy my photos of the new fledgling and she just melted with delight.
As I embarked upon a variety of tasks at home, my phone chimed with a new text message. It was from Rusty Wandall, a new owl friend and a growing owl addict. He stated that he had not seen the owlet in the nest but having found all of the other owls he wondered if I had found the third owlet. Given the agreement about keeping the fledgling news to a few veteran owl addicts I was torn about what to tell him. Rusty is jolly nice chap and his enthusiasm for the owls is palpable. I decided to let him know that I had observed what he had. Ironically, I was so busy at home that I forgot to text said veteran owl addicts-d'oh!!
I continued on with my work and an hour later I received another text from Rusty stating that he was watching all three owlets! I called him immediately and asked him for more details. He had found the third owlet walking one of the dirt paths close to the other owls. As we spoke he said that he could see Sarah and all three owlets. The owlet had moved 80-100 yards in under three hours. It likely waited for it to get darker and to become more awake and active before making its next big move. Part of me was slightly skeptical that the owlet had gone so far so fast and I wondered if there were in fact four owlets! I explained to Rusty about the fledgling and my reasons for my incomplete disclosure. He graciously understood my reasoning and was glad that I had seen the third owlet earlier.
Brenda and I contacted each other and she was awestruck at the fledgling's progress. It turned out that she was able to return to the park. I asked her to go back to where I had found the owlet to see if the owlet was still there and if indeed there were four and not three owlets. Through a series of texts and phone calls with Brenda and Rusty over the next while it became clear that the owlet had indeed moved from where I had found it and that four owlets was not the case. More importantly the third owlet was active and evidently in good shape! Throughout this and the earlier text and phone call exchange, I kept Wendy up to date with all the latest news and developments. Brenda and Rusty concluded their observations and I thanked and praised them repeatedly for their great work and help. The whole night was truly a team effort and a great one. I finished my work at home, sat down in my favorite chair and had a well-deserved Martini while thinking fondly of the owls and how much of an impact they have on the lives of so many people. Thanks for reading!
Monday, April 8, 2013
As of yesterday, the last nestling was still in...the nest. It is interesting and a tad worrying that it has not fledged. Is it a late bloomer or is it injured or with some other physical condition that is keeping it in the nest? I think it more the latter. On Friday. April 5 and Saturday, March 30, myself and various other owl watchers saw this owlet flap its wings, approach the lip of the hollow and almost, at times, look like it was going to fledge but did not. Still it was good to see it be able to perform a wide range of motions.
In the meantime the fledglings, Sarah and Charles have not been idle. The fledglings continue to gradually mature as they improve their flying, walking, climbing and landing skills. Every flight, every landing, every day is a learning experience, a move forward on the slow, long path towards maturity and independence. For example, here is a sequence from Monday, April 1 of the oldest owlet hopping up from one branch to another.
On both Monday and Tuesday I was lucky enough to see a fascinating sight. Each day was bright and sunny and thirty-forty minutes before sunset Sarah fed herself and the fledglings an Eastern Cottontail Rabbit. It was light enough that I was able to get some decent footage both stills and video. On both days, I believe that Sarah did not freshly catch the rabbit but uncached it from one of their cache spots. Late last week Sarah uncached an Eastern Cottontail Rabbit three nights in a row from the 06/09 hollow. Here she is doing so on Friday, March 29.
Back to April 1, Sarah appeared in The Big Dead Tree with a rabbit and then flew to a lower branch where she took a few bites of it before flying low to feed the middle owlet, who was on the ground. You can hear the owlets' rasping, begging cheeps in the background along with the calls of Red-winged Blackbirds.
The middle owlet jumped down to the ground, met Sarah on the ground and Sarah fed her.
The owlet billed clacked at Sarah as the owlet made its way to Sarah. Over the years I have heard the owlets bill clack when excited and/or hungry. An adult will bill clack if it is angry and disturbed. If you ever have an adult owl bill clack at you-get away from the owl and do so with speed. The owlets seem to bill click because they are so excited and they just can't hide it. I call it The Pointer Sister Phenomenon.
A few minutes later, Sarah flew to another low perch. She fed there for a few minutes before flying to another perch closer to the eldest owlet.
Sarah then flew back closer to the eldest owlet who, in the meantime, had flown a good 20-30 feet to a larger branch. The owlet made its way down the branch to Sarah by walking and taking short hops and feeding commenced. My apologies for the partially blurry footage in parts. It was amazing to see both owlets make big moves to get fed.
As Sarah continued to feed the owlet, she gave it a large piece of prey, possibly one of the rabbit's legs. The owlet took a few bites more from Sarah but very importantly began to feed on its own.
This transition to Sarah feeding them bite-by-bite to the owlets being able to eat partially on their own is a big step. The eldest owlet got more food but Sarah did try to feed the middle owlet again. However, it was unable to move close to Sarah, even though Sarah moved a few times trying to get closer to her young. Sarah eventually flew and cached the prey in The Great Northern. I headed back to check on the nestling once more before heading home. Wendy was concerned that the eldest owlet received more food than the middle owlet. I told her I shared her concerns but was confident that Sarah and Charles would do their utmost to make sure that everyone, themselves included, had enough to eat.
Thanks for reading and be sure to check out Dinner Time! Part II, which will be coming in the next few days. Take care!
Well, if the evening of March 25 and morning of March 26 were not exciting enough with seeing one owlet fledge and make it into The Wooded Area, last night, March 26, just took everything to a whole new level. To cut to the chase, there are three owlets! Three! As of last night, two have fledged into The Wooded Area and one was still in the nest. I was thrilled to finally see two at the same time just over a week ago but we never saw more than that at once and so we thought that it was two owlets and no more. Two-three is typical for Great Horned Owls and Charles and Sarah have mostly had two per year. They had three owlets in 2008 and 2010. Their average is very nuclear family in size: 2.25 owlets per year. With last year's drought I was happy that they nested and had two owlets period so seeing three is a delight and especially interesting. Here's how I found all three last night.
I arrived at The Wooded Area about an hour and a half before sunset as I wanted time to look for the fledgling I had seen that morning and the night before then. I found Charles quickly in his new favorite conifer, in which I had not seen him for over a week. I headed down to The Arena and saw the one owlet still in the nest. I carefully walked around the perimeter of the eastern half of The Wooded Area looking for the fledgling and Sarah. No dice. I wondered if the owlet had covered more ground like the owlets had in 2011 so I walked back to where I had found Charles to look around that area.
I found Sarah deep into The Wooded Area not far from her late summer/early fall perch. I did not notice at the time but a Red-bellied Woodpecker was just to the right of her as you can see here.
I looked between the two parent owls and there just 20-30 feet from Charles in a low, thin tree was the fledgling. Incredible. It had covered 50-80 yards since that morning. Check out how fluffy its cheeks are!
Charles had pivoted in his new favorite confer and I was able to see more of him.
I watched the owlet as it kept a low profile and watched its new surroundings. As I did so, a helicopter flew by and the owlet watched the chopper's progress with much curiosity.
Amazed, I headed back down to The Arena to see the owlet still in the nest. I could no longer see it in the nest and decided that it had gone deeper down into the nest, a perfectly normal activity. Charles began to hoot and so I headed back to him, Sarah and the fledgling. Charles had moved to The Archy Tree in a more atypical spot within this tree, which is mostly used in the summer and early fall.
I found the fledgling and as I looked in the area of where Sarah was perched, I saw an owlet trying to keep its balance while perched in a low, small tree near Sarah's perch. I looked back to the fledgling near Charles to see if it had flown to this new spot but it was still there. This balancing owlet was a second fledgling!
This second fledgling was bigger than the first. I think this second one was in fact the owlet that I saw fledge the night prior judging by its size. Furthermore, I think this fledgling near Sarah is bigger and older than the fledgling near Charles. This fledging of these two owlets was reminiscent of how the 2011 owlets fledged, which you can read about here. The big difference was that in 2013 we saw the owlets "hit the gym", much more than in 2011.
By now my mind was reeling. Were there three owlets or had the one seen in the nest mere minutes ago fledged and moved 80 plus yards from the nest? The former was the much more realistic option but I had to confirm it. Back to The Arena I went and there in the nest, again visible was the owlet, smaller and younger than the others.
This made one,two, three owlets! Bloody hell.
I grinned with delight and quickly texted the news to my girlfriend, Wendy, and several owl friends and mentees. As I did so I was joined by Taffy Ross a frequent park goer and owl fan. Taffy marveled at the news and as she watched the owlet in the nest, I saw a car pull up and a couple get out and look in The 08-12 Nest Tree. I called them over and it turns out they, Peter and Beverly Danis, had been reading my blog, which was great to hear. They began to watch and photograph the owlet and ask many great questions. Michael Sprague then stopped by and joined the group. Michael joined me for an owl prowl the night before and he spotted the fledgling first. He is a journalism student at Lindenwood University who is doing a piece on the owls and my work with them for his online journalism class. He hopes to turn this class project into an article for the university's student newspaper. Michael is co-editor of that paper's sports section and active sports blogger as well as you can see here.
The news of the three owlets amazed Michael during his brief stay. Taffy, the Danis' and I headed up to see the others. Taffy saw Charles but had to return to her keen for a walk dogs. Peter and Beverly joined me and we began to hear the owlets beg for food and the second fledgling made the first owlet flight of the year that I was able to see.
A Cooper's Hawk appeared near Charles and he glared at it before the accipter departed in great haste. Sarah had food in her talons, something mammalian, and she changed positions a couple of times to try and get closer to the not yet overly mobile owlets. Here she is with the food and taking a nibble for herself and then a shot of her with the food in her bill. The owlets begging and Charles hooting continued apace.
Sarah looked especially intense and so we backed off and watched them from a distance before heading down to The Arena once again. The owlet in the nest was still there but more prominently in view. Peter and Beverly headed home and I watched for a little longer. Charles' hooting stopped and I went back up to find him gone and the owlets quiet, leading me to believe that Sarah was able to find a way and a place to feed them. The larger owlet was visible where I had first found it. I walked home and showed Wendy the pictures and she cooed with delight. My friend and owl mentee and master of Forest Park, Chris Gerli of City Cycling Tours called me and we had a great discussion about these owlets with much analyzing and comparing with the previous years owlets.
Thank you for reading! Before I go here is one last picture of the smaller fledgling dozing in its perch.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
I was leading an owl prowl last night, more on that particular prowl in an upcoming post, and somewhere between the beginning of the prowl and the last portion thereof, one of the owlets fledged! Not only did it leave the nest it got out of the nest tree entirely! No branching in the nest tree-just out and about wholesale. The owlet was at the base of the nest tree delicately perched on top of some reeds by the river way. My biggest concern was that it was 3-5 feet from the water. Even though the water is shallow, it is cold and these are owls not ducks or geese. I was also concerned about potential predators but thankfully Sarah was nearby. The owlet appeared uninjured and safe. It adjusted its wings when it needed to balance itself. Here's the little one last night.
I stopped by this morning with my binos and my point-and-shoot camera mere minutes before sunrise and was pleased to see that the owlet had made it into the The Wooded Area. It was perched in a low branch in The Training Area not far from the base of The Overlook Hotel Tree.
The other owlet was still in the nest hollow and Sarah was perched close to the hollow. Charles was nearby in The PX Tree, a newly named but much storied tree in their territory. It was touching to see the whole family so close together. Some commuting crows harassed Charles and Sarah but the crows did not appear to notice the fledged owlet, thankfully.
So how did the owlet get out of the nest? My best guess is it got out of the nest courtesy of The Three Fs: Fly, Fall and Flail. These three verbs are key to the nest departure locomotion of fledging GHOs. Space issues may have contributed to this owlets departure . The entry/exit point of the hollow was getting more crowded day by the day as the owlets grew. Before I left last night, I saw Sarah fly out of the nest hollow before landing in The Second of The Three Trees. I wonder if Sarah's presence in the nest and the subsequent decrease in space became a precipitating factor leading to the owlet's departure. Perhaps the owlet was just ready for this huge step in its life.
There is much more to say about this fledging but in the meantime, if you come to the park to see the owls please be extra cautious and careful. I would strongly suggest not entering their territory from the road closest to the nest tree as you might find yourself between owlet and mom. Do not get close to the fledged owlet and be mindful of Sarah's whereabouts at all times. Do not risk incurring her protective wrath. Last week my friend Robin Street-Morris saw a hawk of the genus Buteo, likely Red-tailed Hawk flew near the nest and Sarah chased it off vehemently. You would not mess with a hawk, do not mess with an animal that does mess with a hawk. Fledging is one of the most dangerous times for a young Great Horned Owl. They are not strong fliers yet and dangers abound. Last night during my prowl I compared fledging to a human parent watching its child take its first steps...in Times Square.
Happy St. Patrick's Day! We have much to celebrate. Last night two owlets were seen for the first time! My friend and owl mentee, Brenda Hente, called me last from the nest site last night and said, "Congratulations. There are two owlets. I'm looking at them both right now." I marveled at the news and shared it with my girlfriend, Wendy, and she exclaimed and smiled with delight. Just a short while before Brenda's call, I showed Wendy pictures of the owls and owlets I had taken on my brief visit to the park yesterday. As I looked at some of the pictures of the one visible owlet shot at different times, I noticed some differences in how the owlet appeared. I wondered if these difference were due to where the owlet was and what it was doing or if these were two different owlets. I'm glad that I had this hunch before Brenda called but was even more happy to hear from her that she was seeing two owlets at the same time. Brenda is on an owlet streak this year both with Charles and Sarah's progeny as well as the now three owlets, Stan, Lil and Red, hatched by the owls, Will and Kate, that Brenda watches in another local park.
Prior to Brenda's sighting there had been only one report of more than one owlet seen at the same time and that was from Crystal Camp a Horticulturist for Forest Park Forever. Crystal's area of responsibility includes the core of the owls territory. On Friday she told me that she may have seen two but was less than certain as she said she did not have binoculars and her eyesight is not up to snuff. Still, it was interesting to hear and my vigil at the owls nest continued. Many other folks have been coming by and my thanks to them including Brenda, Barb, Chris, Rusty, Pam, Luann, Jane, Ted, and Raphie. Biggest thanks to Wendy for her continuously amazing encouragement and support!
Here are some photos that Brenda got yesterday of the two owlets. You can definitely see differences in age because of the differences in size and facial disk development.
Now here are two of my pictures yesterday of what I was suspecting were two different owlets. The pictures were taken twenty minutes apart. In the first picture Sarah was out of the nest on a perch where she and Charles mated several times. In the second picture Sarah had returned to the nest and descended deep within it.
Great stuff! I have a name for one of the owlets picked out, now I just have to think of a second one. I will post here when I have the second name determined. Thanks for reading and I hope see some of you at my talks this week as described in my previous post!
Tuesday, March 12, 2013 The first half of the year is off to a busy start with a couple of owl talks next week and two more before June. I gave seven owl talks last year and with the talk I gave in January, I will have given five before the year is at the half way mark. If you know of an organization, school, book club, business, crime syndicate, etc; that you think would be interested in a talk, please feel free to recommend me to them. Thank you! Next week's first talk is for Missouri Nature & Environmental Photographers (MoNEP) on Tuesday, March 19 from 6:00-8:00pm at The Ethical Society in Ladue. A map and directions are available here. I was quite chuffed to hear when MoNEP contacted me that my name had come up several times as a potential speaker. As this is prominent group of photographers whose speakers are frequently highly distinguished photographers, I stressed to them that I am not a photographer but a naturalist who takes pictures and video. Happily they understood my perspective and are keen to hear about my work with the owls as well as my tips and insight on how to photograph owls and other wildlife in a responsible and ethical manner. The second talk for next week is my first out-of-town talk. I am honored to be addressing the East Ozarks Audubon Society on Thursday, March 21 from 7:00-8:00pm at Farmington Methodist Church in Farmington, Missouri. They kindly invited me to speak to them after reading about my work in the MO-Bird e-mail listserv. This will be my first to Farmington, the county seat of St. Francois County. While Farmington is only about seventy miles away from St. Louis, I am thrilled to be taking the show on the road. As some of you know I gave a talk at the Maplewood Public Library in nearby Maplewood, MO in January. The talk was a success and with sixty-five people in attendance it was the largest audience the library had ever had for a lecture! It was great to see so many owl friends, addicts, and mentees in the audience and to meet and help create new ones. The library generously allowed me to film the lecture and post it on my YouTube page as you can see below. The talk was such a success that the library has asked me to do a series of talks focusing on specific aspects of the owls' lives. The first of these talks will be again at the Maplewood Public Library on Thursday, April 25 from 7:00-8:00m. This talk is called "Forest Park Owls: Nesting and Owlets" and as the title indicates it will be the owls' nesting behavior and their offspring, the ever delightful owlets. Here are links to the library's FAQ with directions to the library (it is both easy and tricky to get there!) and a brochure for the talk itself.
I have another talk in May but I will save that for a future post. Thank you for reading and I hope to see you at one of these talks!
My name is Mark H.X. Glenshaw and I am an amateur naturalist. I focus my attention both in the field and in the library on the wildlife found in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri. A gem of an urban park, Forest Park hosts a startling and consistently increasing range and depth of wildlife. I have closely observed and followed the activities of a mated pair of Great Horned Owls since late December 2005. I have dubbed these owls Charles and Sarah. These observations and related research are the most challenging, rewarding, stimulating and complex undertaking I have ever encountered. I lead owl prowls and give talks on these owls for groups and individuals. To arrange an owl prowl or a talk, please e-mail me at mglenshaw@gmail.com Thanks for reading!
Posts
