We are so lucky to have this pair of great horned owls return to nest in our barrel of sweet clover seed for their third season! Here you can review Season 1 and Season 2 if you like.

Mar 10, 2019 Shawn checks the nest and captures the first egg. Thanks for the photo, Shawn.

Mar 24, 2019 Shawn checks again and now we have 3! Mama and Papa Hoo must think there is enough food to support all 5 of them. Ugh. Thanks for another photo Shawn.

Apr 13, 2019 We set up cameras and lucky for us, the first owlet had hatched. Still unable to keep her head held up, but she did have her wing around her siblings.

We noticed one egg shell was chipped and it appeared to come from the inside.

On this day, the nest was fairly clean with just a few feathers around the edges.

Apr 14, 2019 Next day, nice weather 14C (55F) we set up another camera and found the second had recently hatched. Mama hadn’t cleaned up all the egg shell yet and the owlet was still a little moist. The last egg was cracking and had a chip out of the top. This time, Mama and Papa Hoo stayed quite close and were upset that we were there so we didn’t stay long.

Above is a breakdown of the events in a 24 hour period. Note: Papa brings 7 mice during the night and the stockpile begins.

Just one last, quick shot… Papa Hoo had been busy bringing Mama some rodents. She stored them at the back of the nest – just like last year. Yikes!

This time, they have more at stake. Check out this video with some footage from our cameras. A couple of my favourite moments are 1) when Papa brings Mama a mouse, but she doesn’t take it (5:30), and 2) watching her feed her three babies (11:00). Enjoy!