Great Horned Owl
Case History 1
Brancher Great Horned Owl on golf course refuses assistance
|
|
|
This Brancher Great Horned Owl refused our efforts to assist him |
A brancher Great Horned Owl was reported to be on the ground at a Shelby County, Alabama, golf course, not far from The Wildlife Center. I found the bird at the base of a tree in an open grove surrounded by fairways. There was very little cover at ground level. One of the adult owls was perched in the canopy of a nearby pine tree, obviously guarding the juvenile. I used a small ladder to place the juvenile on the branch of a small dogwood tree, the only tree in the grove with branches within reach. The next day the golf caddies called to say the bird was on the ground again. I went back to check on the bird, and it was crouched next to a tree trunk right by the open fairway. The adult bird was still visible, and the juvenile appeared to be perfectly healthy, so I decided to leave it alone. I returned the next day just before dark, and found the juvenile had moved about 150 yards, from the open grove next to the fairway into a thick tangle of shrubs, small trees and a few large pine trees. I could hear the young bird food-begging, and I could also hear the adult bird calling from the pine tree. I listened for awhile and then went home.*
Case History 4: Great Horned Owl nestlings placed in nest basket in Tuscaloosa without the use of recorded calls
Two older nestling Great Horned Owls were found in a park in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, a few days apart. The two were obviously siblings, and nest material scattered on the ground indicated that the original nest had disintegrated. With the aid of the fire department and a “cherry picker” truck, I installed a nest basket high in a pine tree where the original nest appeared to have been located. This case happened long before I had thought of using the recorded calls, and I waited for contact with the adults from six p.m., when my helpers left, until almost midnight. It was an extremely cold night, with a high wind blowing. A street light gave me enough light to allow me to watch the nest basket from my car, but with the engine off, my vigil was a chilly one. Finally a Great Horned Owl landed on a big branch of the pine tree, and stared in the direction of the nest basket. After brief pause, she hopped over and bent down into the nest. A few minutes later she took off, and returned in about 20 minutes. The light was too poor to see what she was carrying, but it was obvious that she was bringing food to her missing nestlings. If I had been able to use recorded calls in that case, I probably would have been on my way home by seven p.m.*
Case Histories 2 and 3 : Nestling Great Horned Owls in substitute nest baskets reunited with parents by recorded calls
Two nestling Great Horned Owls were found in public parks, one in Decatur and one in Cullman, Alabama. In both of these cases, the birds were nestlings approximately four weeks old. A preliminary search by local volunteers of adjacent trees failed to reveal the parents or the nest structure. Because of the age of the birds, in both cases it seemed quite certain that the parents would be in the area where the nestlings were first observed. Nest baskets were installed in a safe location in trees as close as possible to where each nestling had been found. Although none of the adult birds had been sighted beforehand, as soon as the recorded food-begging calls were played, contact with the adult birds occurred within 5 minutes. In both cases, the adult owls immediately flew to the substitute nests containing their lost nestling.*
Case History 5: Great Horned Owl brancher fostered to another family after falling twice from its own nest
A nest containing three nestling Great Horned Owls was located in a pine tree in a yard in Crestline, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama. One of the nestlings fell to the ground. The bird was uninjured, and the Crestline Fire Department helped to replace the nestling in the nest. A few weeks later, another bird fell from the same nest. We had not marked the first bird, so it was impossible to determine whether or not it was the same bird. Since the bird was now a brancher, the decision was made to transfer the fallen bird to the custody of a Great Horned Owl pair in the adjacent suburb of Homewood. This pair had only a single offspring, also a brancher. The Crestline bird was placed on a branch in the tree where the Homewood brancher was perching, which was located in the backyard of a Wildlife Center volunteer. The volunteer was able to monitor the progress of both branchers over the next few weeks, with the assistance of interested neighbors. The two branchers perched together most of the time at first, but gradually took to wandering from tree to tree throughout the neighborhood, both birds receiving food from the Homewood adults. Our volunteer reported that the adopted bird had a noticeable “Crestline accent”, and that the food-begging calls of the two juveniles were different enough to be able to locate the individual birds just by their calls.
The Crestline nest containing three juveniles was obviously inadequate for the size of the brood, although the birds that fell showed no signs of malnutrition, and were probably receiving enough food from their parents. The Homewood owls had lost a second nestling because of the destruction of their nest, and it was apparent that they could care for one additional juvenile. The switch seemed to make sense for both families.*
Case History 6: Great Horned Owl nest relocated to nest basket just before nest tree was cut down
A family of Great Horned Owls had to be relocated because their nest tree was about to be cut down in a suburban back yard. The tree was endangering the house, and the homeowner had hired a tree cutting company to cut the tree down. Knowing the owl nest was in the tree, he asked me to assist in moving the nest to a nearby tree. I provided the treecutters with a laundry basket nest, which they installed at the same height as the old nest, in a pine tree very similar to the original nest tree. The adult birds were watching from about 50 feet away, although they made no effort to defend their nestlings. The tree cutters gently lowered the nestlings to the ground using the rope and bucket method described above, and I examined each of the two nestlings to make sure they were unharmed. Then the process was reversed, and the treecutters raised the bucket to the substitute nest and gently installed the two nestlings in the new nest. Shortly after the nest swap was completed, in broad daylight, the mother owl flew in and landed on the edge of the new nest. The homeowner reported that the family successfully fledged their young from their new nest site.*
*text by Executive Director Anne Miller