Today I returned to The Presidio for my Great Horned Owl Nest Monitoring duties.

Because of the difficulty in seeing or even hearing the Ecology Trail GHOs, I’ve sadly had to give that nest monitoring up.

But it was easy to check in on my other two nests!

The Barnard GHOwlets were in their nest. Snuggled next to each other. And the adult female (I’m guessing) was closeby in another euc. At about the same height as the nest, facing it (as I would expect). Sleeping.

It’s sad when Owlets stop being so awake in the day. But these two woke up when a couple different folks stopped to look for them. Both on the trail and on Barnard. Even two people with cameras and large zoom lenses. The word is OUT.

They woke up a bit, at first. Saw me watching them. Then became pretty focused on the dogs belonging to the folks who stopped to look up at them. Then they stared right at me once the others left. Aw. But they soon returned to dozing. It’ll be much more interesting to visit them now when it’s close to sunset. And they know they’ll get fed soon…

Next was the YMCA GHOs. Now, I don’t believe I’ve journalled about them yet! I learned about this nest from the Raptor Nest Monitoring grapevine. My attention was previously over on Funston. But that was proving to be consistently unfruitful of late.

So it was with UTTER GLEE that I learned of this nest location. There were TWO Owlets from the YMCA pair! The nest was quite tough to see into. And given how far it was from people, it’d likely go unnoticed except for the True Owl Fans.

And today, I was able to better see them as one had branched out of the nest! I actually walked right to a good spot to see the nest, looked up, and found BOTH Owlets staring right at me. The one that had branched out appeared comically tall, with its head tilted eversoslightly. I couldn’t stop laughing at first!

The second Owlet, content in the nest, also had its head tilted a touch when looking at me straight on. These two are in that Super Curious stage that I love. And given how little people-watching they get to do, it must be terribly exciting to ever see anyone peering back at them.

The adult female (I’m guessing) was still in the nest. Sleeping.

The Owlet that had branched out almost never took its eyes off of me. No matter what spot I was in, and I tried all sorts of locations to get the best looks in there. It’s a tough one. Glad there are good horizontal options for them nearby to branch out onto.

That Barnard GHO nest will prove to be a challenge for easy branching out…

While starting to be a little unnerved by the Elder Owlet’s fixed staring at me, a Steller’s Jay (that had been squawking in nearby eucs) flew right to the fence in front of me. To squawk at ME! Did it not know about those three Owls??

But because it got so close to me, I was able to get great shots of it. Joke’s on you, Jay!

So. Four GHOwlets today. Two sleeping adults. One happy Owl Witch.