We had our first owl visit today. Walking out to the barn to bring the hens in, we saw a Great Horned Owl in our old mesquite tree. It flew down and settled on the path around the seasonal garden and stared at us. My intrepid husband ran back to get his camera, I froze so as to not scare the owl away, and we ended up with 30+ photos of the owl. Here are two: We were so thrilled--this is the first time we've seen owls at our farm! (The hens are secure in a covered coop, so no need to worry!).
Thats a very unusual thing for an owl to do. Could he fly ok ? Only one I have ever seen on the ground (unless he had caught something), had his wings clipped. But it looks healthy.
What a wonderful thing to see with your very own eyes! Give hubby a pat on the back for that one. Looks like it may be a juvie not up on it's survival game yet.
WOW look at those eyes? What an impressive bird your owl is. I hope he wasn't expecting a free hand out of chicken for dinner!! I'm so glad your husband managed to get such clear shots of it. Thank him from us all.
Not sure this owl can see well out of one eye. Has anyone noticed they are different colors and in the bottom pic you can see a bit of a glaze on the left eye. Can see it in the top pic too.
Yes, I saw that...but I assumed that it was down to the angle of the light source. Dangerous thing--assumptions. Now I am curious.
Mart, I wondered about one eye being less open than the other. It can fly--it flew into the mesquite while we were going to the barn, and then flew down to the garden path. It was back in the mesquite this morning when we went out about sunup. This is a photo taken about 6:45 this morning. You may very well be right about its vision. I have a call in to the Waco Zoo in case they want to come get it and put it into rehab. They have a fairly extensive rehab program for birds. I put some raw hamburger out just in case it got hungry. It is "in residence" today which is one of our Cornell U. bird count days. They are NOT going to believe this, especially since they questioned us on barn swallows! My husband is basking in the praise y'all have poured on him. I'm in for a couple of difficult days . . . .
Eye color can vary in any bird. In a owl the eye color is dominate to the mating pair. This is not to say both eyes will be the same color. A dominant male may have darker eyes due to it's night activities. A female could have lighter eyes due to her not so dark activities. The offspring may have one color, or the other, or one of each. Not unusual tho.
LIcenter, that is reassuring. I do hope our owl is either a juvenile, or has decided this is a safe place to stay, or is just resting up from previous exertions. Thank you for the information!
This morning our owl was still in the mesquite, but had shifted his perch to a higher branch, and wasn't so fluffed out as before. I put out raw hamburger and a source of water, hoping the owl would like that.
Heh, heh, heh....let him bask. It is such a special opportunity to get that photograph. 30+ foto's ! Wow. I wouldn't mind seeing more. I do not get to see such remarkable foto's often. I just sit and study your foto's of this bird. Really interesting. Was it interested in the hamburger? Have you tried pieces of chicken? Or would that be tempting fate? BTW--how is that camera that your man bought working? Have you caught any interesting moments on it?
Awesome photos! Our bird count was on Friday, it would have been amazing to report a Great Horned Owl!