Dawn - Sometimes An Ultrarunner

Dawn - Sometimes An Ultrarunner

June 4, 2013

A Family Of Owls In Daylight!

My explorations around the NOLS Wilderness EMT campus continue.  Still no mountain lion sightings (yup, still too chicken to cross the river).   But while I was setting up for a time lapse sequence last weekend on the slick rock, I saw a grey shape on the red rock and started wondering what I was seeing.   I couldn't get very close to the side of the cliff, but was curious enough that I left my camera and backpack on the rocks and made a mad dash back to the classroom to see if anyone was around and could lend me a pair of binoculars.   

Sure enough, I got lucky to find some, and convinced classmate Linn to come along and check it out with me.  We were super excited to find a family of Great Horned Owls living on the ledge.    There appeared to be two large chicks which were not grown up enough to fly yet.  The adults were not present, although we could see a large bird flying around the rocks nearby.    I returned later that day, and the next morning, to find both adults near the chicks.  In fact I've had some amazing moments watching them all different times of day.  Once I even caught one of the adults silhouetted on rock at sunrise, it was amazing.  I love just sitting there and watching them.   They keep a pretty close eye on me, too, although I am still pretty far away.  
View from iPhone through the binoculars
Apologies, these photos of the owls are taken with my iPhone, looking through the lens of the binoculars.  Yes, it can be done.  No, it doesn't give great photo quality....duh.   Yes, it takes some hand-eye coordination!  
Linn and I continued exploring when the owl excitement wore off, and I even convinced her to stand on my posing rock.   What an awesome view!
One adult with two chicks

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