Young owl at campground

All fluff, no feathers, a young Great Horned Owl takes a serious view of his visitors.
 Photo by Marg Kirk

While we were delighting in the antics of the baby robins in our yard, out friends over at Painted Rock Campground just east of Saskatoon, had a much more impressive baby to watch.

A pair of Great Horned Owls had chosen to set up housekeeping at site 17 in the campground, an evergreen tree very close to the Kirk's house in what my brother Dale described as a pretty sad looking nest. These owls do not build their own nest  but rather lay claim to an abandoned crow or hawk nest - no wonder it's a shabby looking nest. To make sure they have squatter's rights to the nest, they get down to business a month or so ahead of other raptors, just in case a returning hawk might want his old address back.

Incubation period is about 35 days and hatching is in order of laying. Sometimes the last chick to hatch is out of luck if his bigger siblings shove him out of the way when lunch is being served, and ultimately he could end up eaten by his larger nest mates. The male delivers food to the female during incubation and brooding, but as the chicks grow and become more demanding, Momma has to go hunting, too, to keep up with their appetites. Marg (Dale's mother-in-law) says one of the campground residents who works nights, has spotted the owls swooping low over the pasture when he returns home at 4 a.m. Great Horned Owls are nocturnal and do their hunting at night, thus avoiding competition with daytime hunters like hawks.

Young owls, like the one pictured here, frequently move out of the nest on to nearby branches before they can fly. The fledging period takes about three months but even after they try their wings, the parents will continue delivering food for a few more weeks. Marg has photos of this little guy stretched out snoozing on the branch. He has to nap during the day so he's ready to eat when the pizza's delivered at night!