First Owl Chick

My apologies for not having posted for nearly four weeks, but it's been a very eventful month, including two weeks of hiking in the Canadian Rockies, and some family matters. Eventually I'll get this blog close to real time, rather than 3 months behind!

Meanwhile, cast your mind back to late April. We are constantly keeping an eye on the "owl sycamore", hoping to catch a glimpse of the chicks. Then one evening, with barely enough light for a photo, the first/older chick emerged.


What an entrance! We stared out the window with binoculars until the light failed, as the chick tested its grasp of the tree's skin. The young owl cannot fly for a few weeks after leaving the nest; they get down to the ground with a three-point stance (beak and two taloned feet) and an occasional but harmless tumble, then waddle to a destination tree and make a three-point climb. Ah, but that's a story about chick #2 a few days later.

Meanwhile, the parent owls kept a vigilant lookout. They harassed and were harassed by crows, especially, but their presence also rasied a ruckus among the robins, and there was a brief tussle with a passing Cooper's hawk that tried to land too close to the sycamore. Owls fly silently -- turn your back and they're gone without a whisper. I did manage one snapshot of the adult in flight.