Owls like open spaces with large old trees that have cavities. Cemeteries often meet all of these criteria and I was able to find a Great-horned Owl nest in a cemetery in London to show my brother and his girlfriend some owls. Erin had never seen one before and I was happy to not disappoint in my promise to find her one this year.
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| Woodland Cemetery, London |
The day was cold and snowy with light flurries that covered everything.
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| Woodland Cemetery, London |
First I was able to find one of the adults in a tree.
Then nearby there was a large cavity in a big tree that had the babies and presumably mama owl. They were pretty deep in the cavity and the pictures aren't fantastic but if you look closely you can see them.
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| Great-horned Owl nest |
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| Great-horned Owl nest |
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| Great-horned Owl nest |
I was quite amazed at the balls on one of the local Canada Goose. It actually tried to fly up and scare the owls from their nest. Needless to say the owl inside definitely had a problem with that! The goose got banged up but not killed and it definitely left the area pretty quickly.
A few weeks later I went back to see how the babies had grown with my friend Gwyn who had also never seen a Great-horened Owl. Ohh my had they grown. Both parents were out of the nest this time and the two babies were really visible with one of them quite bravely poking itself out. They had developed more of a pattern and distinctive feathers compared to their general white-grey fluff that they had before.
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| Great-horned Owl nest |
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| Great-horned Owl nest |
I will never tire of owls and I can't wait for next April to go looking for more. They grow up fast and going back to check on them at various times was very interesting.
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