February 4, 2014
By mutual agreement between the good folks at the University City Public Library and myself, we have decided to postpone the talk I was to give there tonight. The weather is not looking good today and we want to have good attendance for this event. It is disappointing to postpone the talk but it is the best, safest thing to do. We are working on a new date for the talk and soon as it is finalized, I will have it up on this blog. My apologies if you had planned to come to this evening's talk but I hope you can make the rescheduled date.
I do have a talk next Monday, February 10. It is a joint talk for the Great Rivers Chapter of the Illinois Audubon Society and the Piasa Palisades Group of the Sierra Club. The talk is at 7:00pm at the Riverbender.com Community Center, 200 W. Third St. in Alton, Illinois. This will be my first talk in Illinois!
Meanwhile, the owls are doing well. Sarah is past the one month mark of nesting. If all goes well, the eggs should hatch in the middle of this month! Here is a video of her flying back to the nest last night after one of a few brief breaks she takes each day.
And for good measure, here she is returning to the nest on January 20.
Charles is keeping busy with hunting for himself, Sarah and the, hopefully, future offspring. One of the more dramatic predatory attempts he made recently was on a Great Blue Heron. Great Blue Herons are one of the largest birds in Missouri. At forty-nine inches tall they are twice the height of Great Horned Owls. Nonetheless, GHOs are documented eating GBHs. On January 18, Charles had flown to The Middle Tree from The Wooded Area. Sarah came out of the nest. As my friend and owl mentee, Brenda Hentee watched Sarah groom and stretch we heard two rapid and intense Great Blue Heron alarm calls. We spun around and saw Charles on the tail of a Great Blue Heron. Charles did not catch the heron but he was quite close to doing so. I managed to catch the end of this incredibly intense predatory attempt.
Thanks for reading and I hope to see you in the park and/or at a talk soon!
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Nice footage. Interesting job/hobby.
ReplyDeleteThank you, What Do Owls Eat!
ReplyDeleteMark, I've been filming a pair of Great Horned Owls in the woods behind our house. (Here's a link to what I put up on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm6AcCgU3QA&feature=share&list=PLmj3vYtHwKz0OJ1eD8yEe0TnW-1YaRanc). I think I was mistaken in believing that GHOs do not copulate after the eggs are laid? Do you know? I have reason to think that there are three adults in this group. Maybe last year's owlet is helping to incubate eggs because this afternoon I saw the female fly away and heard the male screech as if they were mating. I stayed another half hour and filmed an adult in the Sycamore where they nest.
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