Owlets

[Tindomul]

Went to my favourite city park (NYC) today and found these two babies. Too cute. They are great horned owl owlets.

Enjoy
oh and a Geranium maculatum for Izzie, if you are watching.

[smweaver]

That's great that they can actually live in NYC (I know that Central Park is big, but I didn't realize that it was big enough to accommodate great horned owls). Very cool picture too.

Steve

[Junebug]

Awww, those babies are just too cute!

[LinhT]

How ADORABLE!!!

[tuvoc]

Love those little guys!!

Kim

[Izzie]

oh.em.gee. One's even saying HI GET OUT OF MY FACE!
Owls are my favorite bird of prey- with barn owls at the top.
What a treasure for you to be able to see.

and thanks for the geranium! Can't wait to go hiking and spy some myself. I need to post mine, some have started blooming.

[fotofashion]

How cute, made me chuckle. We have had the privilege of seeing baby barred owlets two years in a row. We live in the country and barred owls are native here. We can hear them communicating in the nighttime and they can even be seen in the day when they start training the owlets to hunt. I'll have to figure out how to post pictures of them. In one pic. one of the parent owls is closely observing us as we look at its baby. Of course, once we see the owlet, Cali the cat gets put into the house. She is just a bit too curious.
Nice find and cute picture. Thanks.
Beverly A.

[Tindomul]

Hi Beverly, thanks for the comments. Is it true that the owlets start exploring on the ground? Is that why you put your cat away? Or is the nest accessible to her?

[fotofashion]

I believe the owlets we have seen were on their maiden flight from the nest. We put the cat in the house to prevent her from molesting the owlet-and maybe getting divebombed by the parents. I've never stuck around long enough watching to see what happens. Last year my DH finally put on gloves and picked up the owlet and put it in an inaccesible place to the cat so we could let her out. The ones I have seen getting their training from the parents were in the trees.
It is hilarious watching them. The parent owl is perched very quietly waiting for that incautious mouse or rabbit. Meanwhile the owlet is doing the "head in a circle" motion or flying between the trees. After a while, the parent gets tired and flies off.
Will you be able to observe further "your" owls?
Beverly A.

[Tindomul]

Thats too cute. And the babies I saw yesterday did the head in a circle thing, but only after I did it to them. I figured it was an owly thing to do. It was too cute to watch them do it to me in return.