Owlets at the Wildflower Center

Today, we took a trip down to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in south Austin to see the Great Horned Owl brood. The nest is in a planter integrated into the rock archway at the entrance to the center, right over all of the people going in and out. The dozy owlets did not seem very disturbed by their star status.

We did not see an adult, though it has been reported in the daytime in nearby trees. We did see three owlets of different sizes, all of which are pictured below. The one to the left of the sotol plant appeared to be the largest. The one to the far right, just poking its beak up, is the smallest. The middle owlet was the one visible the longest.

We enjoyed chatting with Vince, one of the volunteers and, later, showing off the owlets through binoculars to many of the visiting guests. Naked eye, they were hard to see clearly. Vince informed us that the nesting site has been used for the last 5 years. These started hatching around the end of March.

First three pictures with Canon 7DII, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L f/6.3, FEC -1.0, ISO-400; last picture Canon SX50 HS at 215mm, f/6.5, 1/640 sec., ISO-200.