Great Horned Owl

The life of the bird photographer is very hard and often dangerous. My latest project took me to the wilds of suburban Whitefish Bay, past gardens of the evil kale and prehistoric rhododendron plants, finally reaching the territory of the Starbucks and Condo tribes where the elusive Great Horned Owl lives.

For the next 10 days I snapped as many photos of the owls as possible under dangerous conditions, knowing that a trip to the Kopps oasis would take almost 15 minutes by foot. 

This was the only adult owl I saw during the time I was there. I don't know if it was the male or female but I suspect that it's the female.

Note the amazing camouflage of the wings in the photo below, making it very                                 difficult for prey to spot the owl among the trees. 

                                                

                 

   This is the first photo of an owlet that I snapped. It was probably 7 or 8 weeks old, since owlets can fly at 9-10 weeks, according to the literature that I read. I soon spotted two more owlets but they were seldom all together.

A week into the session, these two owlets put on a show for me, grooming one another and giving the viewers an "Aww!" moment.

                                                                                       

           

                       






                                        "Look what I can do!"









               On the last day that I saw the owls I got a preview of what would happen the next day.

The owlets were testing their wings and making short flights from tree to tree.

I was lucky to get the following shot of one of the owlets flying.

On the 11th day, the owls were gone. Maybe forever or maybe they'll be back tomorrow, but I knew that they'll never call, never write...because owls can't do that!

Many thanks to friends who initially alerted me to the owls' presence!