Friday afternoon I received a call from a friend who had noticed that
a previously brooding Great Horned Owl was not on her nest, which was
located on one of my friend's neighbor's property. The nest, about 60
feet high, appeared to have a hole in the center and she saw one downy
owlet at the base of the nest tree. Both parents were still in the
area. We tossed around several options and she decided to mount a
shallow, bowl shaped wire basket to the tree about 12 feet off the
ground (longest ladder she had) and line the basket with straw and put
the owlet in the new nest. Both parents were flying around while she
worked. We hoped that the parents would care for the little guy in
the new nest but were not too hopeful. We watched from a distance but
the parents did not go to the new nest. Believe it or not the next
morning the mom was on the nest and with a scope we were able to see
the little one pop its head up a couple times before crawling back
under mom!

Ed Schulz
eschulz at eldec.com