I heard the owl last night. The waning moon provided some light but I couldn't see the bird. The breeze out of the west made him sound close one moment and the next he sound far away. I'm sure it's coming up on mating season so he's most likely talking trash to his girlfriend who probably lives down on the Mulberry River which is about a mile away. Sometimes you can hear them both. Who, who, whoooooooo and she will respond in kind. If you listen long enough, you can hear the gap between them grow smaller and the intervals between hoots shorter.
I'm not sure what happens to the young because the population around here doesn't seem to be increasing. You'd think if they had two or three off springs that there would be more hooting going on, but that's not the case. It could also be a life span issue but they are such magnificent birds, they look as though they could live forever. I'll have to study up on this to see if I can solve the mystery.
I used to see and hear them rugularly at work untill they clear cut the property behind us a few years ago. We used to have a great horned that live up on the ridge. He/she stood at least 3 feet tall and had the largest wingspan of any bird I've ever seen. Now all I see are Turkey-vultures and the ocasional sparrow hawk.
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