Larry

I live on the edge of the Whitemud Creek nature preserve in Edmonton. Is this the same place? I have been following a breeding pair of great horned owls for a couple of years. Mid to late February, near their nesting area, I begin to hear the pair hooting to each other. One afternoon in early March 2021 I photographed the pair perched in separate trees about 50 feet apart, marking two vertices of an equilateral triangle, the previous year’s nest within view at the third vertex. Over the next few weeks their conversation seemed to move south. As it turned out, they chose not to occupy the previous year’s nest and moved to another about 100 metres to the south. They bred two chicks each year2020 and 2021 but I believe only one of the 2021 brood survived. I am asked sometimes how I got so close to the nest to get this photograph of the chicks (hatched in 2020). I didn’t – I was on the ground some considerable distance away, using a Nikon B700 superzoom camera zoomed out to its maximum focal length. Unfortunately I was without a tripod so the photograph isn’t as sharp as I would have liked.