Mail Call
with Lena Horn
episode 1
October
6, 2004
Welcome to the
"Mail Call." I'm Lena Horn, here to answer your latest
questions about the "Tiger of the Air," Bubo virginianus.
(That's me, you know.) Now then, let me stick my talons DEEP
down inside this mailbox to see what you lot have been asking
me lately. Doo dee doo....
Well, now, here's a message
from one Bob Drew from Harpswelle, Maine -- and I quote:
Question One:
I am interested in attracting a horn owl. We live right on the water, on the coast of the gulf of Maine. Thanks.
--Bob
No, thank you, Bob. We GHOs are always interested in acquiring
new territory, provided it's a little off the trodden path (and
with a name like Harpswelle, I don't imagine you're surrounded
by skyscrapers, eh?) But allow me to direct you to a couple of
my previously answered questions that have dealt with this very
subject matter.
Just a couple of months ago, for instance, I received this question from a chap named Andrew who wanted to attract owls to his yard. Much of my response had to do with the uncertain fate of a Saw Whet Owl that Andrew apparently saw fly straight into a mirror, but I seem to recall that I dealt with the question of favorable owl environments in at least one paragraph.
I answered an even more germane question on this owl-attracting subject back in June when a certain Lexi of San Juan Batista, California, asked me how to build a Great Horned Owl nest box for his backyard [click here to read question]. Of course, I had to tactfully tell him that my species doesn't have much call for a nest box, but I did suggest ways that he could make his neighborhood an ideal habitat for the likes of me (assuming, as seemed to be the case here, that Lexi fellow didn't live smack-dab in the middle of a full-fledged city).
As these previous answers suggest, Bob, you'll want to offer us a natural-looking yard (no lawns out of a Better Homes and Gardens photograph, please!) with some tall trees, preferably coniferous, and a nearby open area or field that we can scour for rodents come sundown. If you really want to get in our good graces, you can erect a 2'x2' wooden platform in the area (covered with twigs, perhaps) near the top of a tall tree (but I won't have you getting injured on my account, Bob: call a professional if you have the smallest qualms about installing such a platform yourself, okay? Promise me, now!)
Moving right along, we
come to question number two:
Question One:
What are the Predators of the Great Horned Owl?
Ooh, that's a good one. And it's actually been asked by three separate grade school students in the last month: Aaron from Plano, Texas; Stevie from Rapid City, South Dakota; and Jennifer from Winnetka, Illinois.
Well, the short answer is, we GHOs are at the top of the food chain, so we don't have any "natural" predators to speak of, at least when it comes to creatures that attack adults of our species. (Except, alas, for you human beings, who sometimes shoot us or run over us in cars! I mean, what's up with that?) But if we're talking about creatures that steal our eggs or attack our fledglings, then I'm afraid to say that we DO have natural predators after all: For starters, skunks and crows will help themselves to our eggs if we're not careful. Raccoons and oppossums will fasten their fangs on a fledgling at the first opportunity. Plus, if there's not enough food to go around, our fledglings will sometimes even attack their own nestmates in order to reduce competition for scarce resources. (It sounds terrible, I know, but I've read of cases where you human beings practice cannibalism, too, if you're stuck in a snowdrift or whatever for two weeks or more.) In fact, do you know what? Almost half of us Great Horned Owls die before we're fully grown!
Once we grow up, however, the shoe is on the other foot because WE are the top predator, thank you very much. The only non-human creature we need fear, really, is ourselves, since Great Horned Owls have been known to attack other Great Horned Owls. I suppose we could also be in trouble if we tried to take over the territory of one of those 3-foot-long Golden Eagles, but that is such a rare occurrence that I feel guilty for even mentioning it here. Still, while we're on the subject of my weaknesses, I should "point out" that the porcupine can be a real thorn in our side, too, if we make the mistake of attacking it. In fact, we are sometimes killed by all the needles that that brute thrusts into us during an encounter. And although those little songbirds aren't exactly predators, they do everything in their power to drive us crazy if they clap eyes on us during the daytime. Crows, too. They love to "mob" us, as it's called, flying straight toward our facial disk or whatever and then pulling up at the very last moment -- it's such a bore!
And now for today's final
question on the "Mail Call." Drum roll, please! (Ooh,
this is so exciting.... What will they ask? What will they ask?
Question One:
My son has a report to do and two of his questions are:
1. What do baby Great Horned Owls look like, their appearance?2. How do baby Great Horned Owls change and grow?
--Silvia
Ah, so. Thanks for the questions, Silvia. I'm afraid my response might not be in time for that son of yours to use in his report, but here goes:
We're all covered with white down when we're first born, but then we start to brown up in the weeks to come, until we're mostly brown except for that so-called "bib" of white feathers under our beaks. But why don't you look for yourself? There's some neat close-ups of a four-week old Great Horned Owl on the other side of this hyperlink. (It's like they say, Silvia: "A picture is worth a thousand hoots.")
Now then, how do baby GHOs grow? Well, I'll tell you what: Here's an average nestling timeline based on info provided on page 120 of the second edition of "North American Owls" by the delightful Paul A. Johnsgard. (You go, Paul! I think your second edition is even better than your original 1985 book!) Numbers are my own averages based on the various studies that Johnsgard (bless him) cites.
Typical Timeline of
a 2-egg GHO clutch
Day -- Event
1 -- Egg #1 laid
5 -- Egg #2 laid
31 -- Egg #1 hatches
35 -- Egg #2 hatches
31-56 Rapid increase
in weight for Owl #1
35-60 Rapid increase in weight for Owl #2
70 Owl #1 starts
losing down
74 Owl #2 starts losing down
82 Owl #1 has well-feathered
wings
86 Owl #2 has well-feathered wings
95 Owl #1 first flight
99 Owl #2 first flight
100 Owl #1 proficient
at flying
104 Owl #2 proficient at flying
Whoo! And that's our final answer for today. I'd like to thank everyone (Bob, Aaron, Stevie, Jennifer, and Silvia and her son) for picking my brain this morning on the subject of Bubo virginianus. Remember, if you have a question about my species, just send it to your old pal Lena Horn here at Quass.com and I'll be delighted to answer it for you. So until next time on "Mail Call," it's goodbye from the Tiger of the Air, the Great Horned Owl!
(Next time I think I'll
select these letters with my beak -- I've done ripped all the
queries to pieces with these talons of mine!)
Baby
Great Horned Owls Joseph
Estabrook School Intro
to baby GHO by student at Lexington, Mass. elementary school
Banding
the Baby Great Horned Owl PBase
Photographic gallery
by "Tammie" with over a dozen close-ups of 4-week-old
owlet
Great
Horned Owl Page Deschutes
and Ochocho National Forests Nicely
photographed, kid-tailored intro to species by U.S. Forest service
Lecture
on Great Horned Owls NJ
Outdoor Women's League Coverage
of Charles Leck's species-related remarks at March 2004 meeting,
plus great close-up of two baby GHOs
Platform
for Great Horned Owl 50Birds.com
Instructions for
building a stand-alone Great Horned Owl Platform