It Is That Time of Year Again, Not Just for Golf but for Our Great Horned Owls!

What does a PGA championship and a raptor nesting season have in common? You are probably thinking... not much right? Well this year they are both happening on our Black Course! What an exciting time here at Bethpage State Park! While our maintenance crew urgently prepares the courses for the tournament, our ecology staff is also up in the bucket truck, making sure our great horned owls are carrying on with nesting season as per usual.

This year I am excited to announce we have two great horned owl pairs! One pair resides in the same tree as it has in previous years; this is on #7 of the Black Course, where an artificial nest was constructed and installed by part-time employee/biologist Jim Jones. 

The second great horned owl pair is actually on the other side of the park, on our Yellow Course. This specific location is behind the 8th green and to the right of the 9th tee. Here the owl pair have adopted an old red-tailed hawk nest (as you might have already concluded, great horned owls do not build their own nests). Nevertheless, they picked a great a location! This nest is actually so high and so well protected that both Jim and I (the park ecologist) are unable to monitor the chicks from the bucket truck. Not to worry though...we have been keeping a watchful eye on the location from the ground level and we take it that there is at least one chick up there, based on the attentive nature of our mating pair. Take a look for yourselves!  

Female great horned owl on guard duty in her nest.

  

This is the adult male hanging out in a tree adjacent to the nest. He is a voracious hunter, often bringing back full-sized mammals and birds for his chicks to eat.  

While we might not be able to confirm how many chicks are in this nest, in our nest on the Black Course we CAN confirm we have two owlets. Here is how they've grown since last month! 

Photo was taken on March 14th.

Upon closer inspection, the giant white blob is actually two, recently hatched chicks. Here they are no more than a week old. As you can see, they are still pinkish and have their eyes closed. Behind the owlets, is prey that the male parent left... a large, completely intact eastern cottontail rabbit (I'll spare you from the unsightly view--you will just have to trust me!) While unfortunate for our mammal friend, this is of course, evidence that our owl mating pair is doing their jobs as parents and providing more than enough food for their young.

Throughout last month, it appeared that the owlets had been eating well ( take a look at the evidence of excrement [also known as whitewash] all in the nest). In the pictures below, you can also see that much more of their juvenile feathers have begun to show and that the chicks have definitely grown in size. 

Photos were taken on March 27th.

It will be a few more weeks until these owls begin to leave their nest and practice flying... so for now, we will happily monitor their progress and continue to provide updates as we get further into nesting season.