The Great Horned Owl Pair are back in the nest tree overnight! First the male GHO comes to the porch and then to the nest. While he is on the nest, the female GHO is on the veranda tip hooting to him. The male does some digging and scratching in the nest he even looks down at the log in the center of the nest and looks perplexed! Why is that here? lol The male then flies to the attic and off towards the pasture.

The cam op finds the female owl on the distal veranda tip. She continues to hoot and is looking around before dropping down the branch and into the nest. She enters the nest and does some moving of small sticks and then goes to the wonky branch to work on that. Too bad she couldn't move it either! She digs around the nest and continues her hooting for a few minutes before she flies off west.

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What does the owl activity mean? This is the beginning of the season and the owls are scouting for a nest and engaging in courtship behaviors. As you may remember, the owls have utilized Harriet and M15's alternate nest (N2) in the west pasture for the past four seasons but there have been owls here even as far back as when Harriet was with Ozzie in season one. The owls do not build their own nest they utilize or take over other nests that have been built or abandoned by other raptors such as bald eagles, osprey & hawks.

Will the owls try and take over M15 & F23's nest? The owls will be searching for a nest this season since the N2 nest in the west pasture is no longer there. If you recall, even with the N2 last year, the owls frequently came to the nest and spent time overnight and even eating prey on the nest. So that is always a possibility of that happening. What we usually have seen in the past with Harriet and also last season with F23, they laid their eggs in the nest before the female owl could and once that happens the owls will have to search for a nest elsewhere. If the owl lays her eggs first then we may see the eagles try and oust her in the daytime and destroy the egg(s). Also remember that M15 started to come to the nest tree at night when it is closer to the time for egg laying which discourages the owl nesting behavior. Hopefully this year it will all work out again as owls and eagles have been living in close proximity to one another each season. Thank you for watching!

To see the highlights below, please click on the timestamps to advance to that portion of the video.

TIMESTAMPS
Opening 00:00 Male Owl to porch and nest hooting. Female in nest tree
02:43 the male continues to dig/scratch & stares at the log perplexed
04:29 Male flies to attic and take off towards pasture
05:46 Female GHO on veranda distal tip
08:40 Closeups of female owl + hooting
11:23 Female moves down veranda and to nest
14:21 Cam 2 of female to nest
15:13 Female tries to move wonky stick
18:07 Female tries to move another stick
21:06 Female owl flies off

Video captured & edited by Lady Hawk

Thank you SWFEC , hosted by Dick Pritchett Real Estate, for allowing us the opportunity to view these amazing eagles.
#southwestfloridaeaglecam

Thank you SWFEC, hosted by Dick Pritchett Real Estate, for allowing us the opportunity to view these amazing eagles.

Cam 1: https://dickpritchettrealestate.com/s...

Cam 2: https://dickpritchettrealestate.com/s...

SWFEC main webpage: https://dickpritchettrealestate.com/