Barred Owls growing up

I continued to visit the Barred Owl family at Gemini Springs as much as I could last month. And I took a lot of photos. You have been warned. 🙂

both babies | 16 April 2012

On April 20th I was kind of surprised to find one of the adults feeding a baby. Earlier I had seen adults delivering small prey items to the babies but this meal seemed to be a large rat or maybe a pocket gopher. The adult bit off pieces and fed them to the baby.

begging baby | 20 April 2012

Barred Owl feeding baby | 20 April 2012

“got your nose!!” | 20 April 2012

feeding baby | 20 April 2012

When they were done, the adult flew off with the remains of the prey and perched on her own, away from the baby.

a break after feeding baby | 20 April 2012

Four days later I was watching the Red-shouldered Hawk nest, which is in a different part of the park than where I generally find the Barred Owls. I was taking photos of baby Red-shouldered Hawks when I suddenly heard the unmistakeable hiss of a baby Barred Owl coming from just behind where I was standing. After a bit of searching, I found one baby and one adult Barred Owl.

here baby sits dead center in the frame | 24 April 2012

baby Barred Owl | 24 April 2012

This location is about 350 yards from the usual Barred Owl spot. I don’t know if the babies are strong fliers at this age (which I don’t really know, exactly). Could the baby have flown all the way to this new spot? If not, would two families of Barred Owls nest so close together? Arthur and I had seen one adult Barred Owl in this area once before. Hmm.

baby Barred Owl with parent | 24 April 2012

During my next two visits, on April 29th and 30th, I found all four family members back in the area where I originally found them. I noticed that one of the babies stayed very close to an adult, while the other baby had ventured off on its own to explore. The meek baby showed great alarm when a dog-walker passed by, even clacking its beak and scrambling along a branch to be closer to its parent. The other baby spent all of its time looking around, seemingly on the hunt.