Keeping her young ones warm

Yesterday morning, 5 April 2014, I was out for a few hours with several friends, checking for birds along the Bow River at the east end of Fish Creek Park. One of the places we called in at was the area where the pair of Great Horned Owls was nesting. Young ones have hatched, apparently, but they were tucked under Mom in the nesting cavity. Thanks so much, Terry, for organizing this outing for us! Sorry to hear about your "fall in the mud"! The rest of us were thankful we hadn't followed you : )

My alarm clock was set for 6:30 this morning, but I fell back asleep for another 45 minutes. This meant that I was in a rush to get ready to go out for the day with friends, S of the city to the Frank Lake area. Consequently, I ran out of time to type full descriptions under my posts for today, add tags, put in groups, and so on. When I got back home, I discovered 17 people had commented on this image, praising my ability to spot such a well-camouflaged owl. Well, that sure made me feel guilty, as I hadn't had time to add that everyone knows about this wonderful little owl family, so we already knew exactly where to look. I believe the owlets (two?) are roughly a week old, so we still have a while to wait before they are old enough to climb up on to the rim of the nesting tree, struggling to keep their balance. This owl pair has given so many people a great deal of pleasure for quite a few years now.

Will add Tony Timmons' report for today's Frank Lake trip - thanks, Tony, both for writing up the list and for taking us down to one of my favourite areas outside the city:

"Eleven people were on the trip today, birding Frank Lake and area. We tallied 35 species. Most of the lake is still covered in ice.

As many as 10,000 Northern Pintails were seen in the fields,sloughs and flying overhead. Two hundred swans were feeding in the fields.

Of note were two Eurasian Wigeons spotted in the shallow sloughs.

Canada Goose
Tundra Swan
Trumpeter Swan
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Eurasian Wigeon
Mallard
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Canvasback
Redhead
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Common Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Rough-legged Hawk
Coot
Killdeer
Ring-billed Gull
California Gull
Great Horned Owl
Horned Lark
Robin
Rock Pigeon,Magpie,Crow,Raven,Starling,House Sparrow"

As you can see, birds are returning after being elsewhere all winter. Only very distant views of them all, except for one Great Horned Owl on her nest - impossible to get a proper shot because she is hidden by a tangle of branches.