Riding With Owls

Why not take a bike ride with Great Horned Owls at twilight?

Lazy? Well, I can’t be lazy all the time.

I’m usually most active in the early morning and during the day, evening is time for dinner and reading or easy entertainment, so I rarely take an evening stroll.

On the evening of April 21st, I decided to grab my bike and take a ride over to OwlsWood, the stand of trees near a creek where a mated pair of Great Horned Owls has been nesting and raising their young very successfully for the last five years and many more. It’s getting close to the time of year when these young owls will begin branching; moving out onto the tree limbs near their nest and then making short flights from branch to branch. I have been stopping by most days for the past few weeks to observe the adult owls behavior. They often roost in the same tree, the male higher up and the female about twenty feet below him. I cannot see the nest but I hope that it’s in this tree with another pair of healthy young owls growing up quickly.

So I headed out about fifteen minutes before sunset and arrived in a couple of minutes as the trees are less than a quarter mile from my house. At first I could not see either owl, then after a minute’s search I spotted the male owl high in one of the eucalyptus trees toward the northeastern end of the tree stand, in the direction of my home as well as the prime hunting fields beyond.

I watched him through binoculars and he would occasionally let out a soft Hoo, hoo hoo…hoo, hoo. And his mate would call softly back from somewhere near their roosting tree in the middle of the tree line.

Then, exactly at sunset, he turned away from the setting sun and flew to the northeast end of the tree line and perched on a high, small bare branch jutting out and clear of other nearby branches and their foliage. I rode over quickly to a good, close viewing spot. He then stretched his head and neck out while raising his tail and called out a soft but full, Hoo, hoo, hoo…hoo, hoo. He was pointed due north. He continued this calling for close to fifteen minutes, getting periodic responses from his mate… and also calls from two other Great Horned Owls off in the direction he was calling towards!

During this winter’s courting, mating and nesting season, I have heard a quartet of these owls calling to each other, right at my house and through the surrounding streets in my small neighborhood. They would most often call in late twilight of evening and it seemed that they would rendezvous near my house and then fly out directly into the adjacent fields due north and northeast. They would then begin their evening hunt and usually call no more.

The male owl roosting in their chosen tree.

The female owl at roost about 15 feet below her mate.

Soon, the male owl launched into the evening sky and flew a few hundred feet to a perch high in some poplar trees, I followed along on my bicycle below, happily chasing the action and scanning the sky for the other owls in flight. The male stayed in the poplar trees for several minutes, calling softly but clearly, toward the northeast and soon I heard the other pair of owls calling back from a few blocks away.

So off I rode, towards the second pair of owls that I believe at least one of which is last year’s offspring from our longtime local owl couple. No way of proving this, but why else would a dominant, mature, mated pair of Great Horned Owls ever allow intruders into their home territory and hunting grounds with their young nearby in the nest, presumably? Keep in mind that this dominant pair of owls has run off many Red-tailed Hawks as well as forcibly taken their nests. What other owls would they welcome but their recent offspring?

Coming up soon, we will know how this season’s nesting has done, check in for more owl news in a few days.