The Great Horned Owl is an owl full of stories. One of the most common owls of the Americas, this owl might introduce itself through pellets found on the ground, or hooting through wintry nights. A woods with an owl is a special and enchanting place. I remember reading Owl Moon as a kid, a book about a parent and their child going owling on snowy nights. When you’re in an owl woods, merely noticing pieces of the forest leads you back to the owl. Spruce trees. A full moon. Agitated Crows. Mice, voles, and squirrels. Most everything traces back to the silent–for now–owl in a tree.
Great Horned Owl with a mouse meal. Photo by Arlene Koziol
The Great Horned Owl is a large, fierce, and gritty predator. It will eat almost anything. One particular Great Horned Owl in Washington was struck by a semitruck. After 290 miles of travel, an overnight stay in the freezing cold, and a deluxe car wash, the owl was finally found on the grille of the truck–alive. Two and a half months of surgery and rehab saw the owl back to its usual haunts of southeast Washington, with quite the story under its wings.
Apparently Great Horned Owls have shot down chimneys to attack caged canaries–a traumatizing Santa reenactment. We've found the work of these owls in the summer, after they've plucked off the nutritious heads of rabbits.
Great Horned Owl. Photo by Arlene Koziol
The owls can grow to be old birds, the oldest recorded lived to 28. They're also strong birds; it takes 28 pounds of force to unclench their claws. Fran Hamerstrom, the famous Wisconsin biologist, had a pet Great Horned Owl that helped her to lure in and catch Northern Harriers for banding and study.
In Wisconsin, you can find these storybook birds in many habitats, but at Faville Grove your best bet is to look or listen around old conifer plantings, where there always seems to be an owl hanging out, and some crows rallying behind to chase it, perhaps the tale most familiar to the Great Horned Owl.
Written by Drew Harry, Faville Grove Sanctuary land steward
