Pine Grove Owls June Update

A few weeks ago, I wrote this post about the Great Horned Owl fledglings that I have started seeing frequently in the Pine Grove. Neither myself, or any of the other photographers who know about the family have found their nest. They usually spend each day sleeping in a different tree, but the general area stays consistent. Some days, one of the owls may be forced to fly from tree to tree for hours, as a flock of crows mobs them relentlessly. Sometimes, finding an owl is made easy by the cawing. Without the crows, I have to be lucky to notice one of them. Their feathers are adapted perfectly to camouflage against the trunks of the Eastern White Pines that make up their habitat. Heres a great example of one of the adults from June 7th:

The hidden owl then rotated its head 180 degrees, to make sure the search party of screaming crows were still confused...

...which they were.

The cluster of trees clearly proved to be a great hiding spot, because when I checked on them about 24 hours later, an adult was using the exact same spot, and the day after that, one of the molting owlets was perched just 20 feet away, in an adjacent tree. It woke up breifly to stare at my, and then dozed off again.

The owls have two roosts: one is in the area surrounding the Pine Grove's fox den, and one is in a clearing, where all the pines are dead. The family spent May and April in the second roosting area, and are now in the first one. I also know that they hang out in the first area in the fall, when they hoot a lot. Below is a screenshot from map view of inaturalist.org. Each blue marker is the rough location of where I took photos of Great Horned Owls. Almost all of the photos from the markers were taken this spring.

I will do an update when something changes.