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Great Horned Owls
Call of Great Horned Owl Parent and Juvenile
Recorded on Edisto Island, South Carolina - April, 2009.
While vacationing on Edisto Island, SC last Spring, we heard what we thought was a cat yowling in the darkness around the house. My sister and I went outside and couldn't locate it and decided to race upstairs to a balcony overlooking the woods. We kept hearing the cat sound and also heard a Great Horned Owl call right after the yowling. We found the owl with our flashlight, but it wasn't until I looked online that we discovered what we were hearing was a young Great Horned Owl and his/her Mama!
I also learned that the Great Horned Owls are the most common owls in the Americas, are extremely adaptable and can be found in towns as well as woods and farmlands. I'm glad we didn't get too close to this one's baby because they are fiercely protective parents and have been known to attack people who wander too close to their young. Great Horned Owl pairs are monogamous and both the male and female incubate. So the parent we heard could have been the male or female.
They are nocturnal and tend to vocalize right after sunset and just before dawn. They are efficient hunters, striking from above and can kill and carry animals much heavier than themselves. They can eat anything from raccoons, skunks, rabbits, squirrels, falcons and other owls! Yikes, I'm glad we didn't get too close to this one's baby! Check out the expression in the photo above. Definitely a stern, warning look!
For more information on Great Horned Owls from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, go HERE.
Photo courtesy of: OwlPictures.com.