Peekaboo, who?

For the past few years we've been able to witness the same mom and dad great horned owls raise their young in a hollowed-out tree. Every year it's very exciting with as many as three owlets most years. A good friend of the family's alerted me that the owls are back. I decided to go to the 'owl tree' in north Corrales to see if I could get some nice pictures. I struck it rich as a photographer, not only getting nice pictures of dad and the mother owl in the nest, but close-ups of male woodpecker, a spotted towhee and several other birds I haven't identified yet. There are too many pictures to sort through today, a nice problem to have. The mother was very hard to see as she was deep in the nest; if you looked hard enough just the top of her head and an occasional eye could be seen. When the mother owl blinked I knew for sure that I was taking pictures of more than than just a tree. My friend thought it odd that the mother was still on the nest this late, so when I got home I checked my other pictures of her and the owlets from last year.  Sure enough, everyone was out of the nest at this time last year. I will need to visit the nest more often now as the owlets could come out any day now. The father was higher in the tree across the path, as if he was monitoring the nest, and ready to defend it if necessary.




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