Hello All,
This past April, while exploring one of my favourite wooded areas in Ottawa, Ontario, I was lucky enough to hear a single ‘hoot’ from an owl. I began scanning the trees and searching the area, and minutes later and 50 yards from where I originally heard the call, I came upon a barred owl perched high in a tree.
Within minutes, another barred owl was spotted perched a few trees over. The excitement was quite overwhelming, as I was fairly confident this was a nesting pair.
The next couple of weeks were spent capturing the behaviour of both owls – including preening, vocalizing, pellet regurgitating, and sleeping. Finally, I discovered the location of the nest. It was in the hollowed trunk of a broken tree, approximately 15 feet up from the ground.
Listening to the two owls vocalize back and forth was quite the experience. Barred owls have a very distinctive call and they would periodically ‘hoot’ to each other throughout the day. Here is some video footage I captured of an exchange.
On June 11th I discovered three chicks had successfully hatched. My guess is they had hatched approximately 3 to 4 weeks earlier. Here they are in the crowded nest.
This past week I discovered that the first chick had left the nest. It will not fledge for another 3 to 4 weeks, but they are excellent climbers and are classed as ‘branchers’ at this stage. This little one was perched on a downed tree, approximately 30 yards from the nest site. I was fortunate enough to spend almost an hour with it, no more than 10 feet away.
I was very excited to capture the following footage of this chick, regurgitating two pellets, then jumping on to a tree truck and climbing up some 15 feet.
It has been a wonderful experience observing and documenting this barred owl family. I will be back out in the woods this week, as all three chicks should be out of the nest and interacting with one another and their parents.
Yours in the Outdoors,
Justin
