My neighbor, Crazy Betty

These are my neighbors; I can see their nest from my living room window. I have been keeping an eye on the nest since I moved in, and most of the time mom has been clamped tightly on top of the nest. This evening, however, I saw her out hunting with her mate, and I went to go see who she'd been sitting on. The nest is pretty high, so it's hard for me to see who's home, but there are at least two owletts in there. They seem pretty young to me, especially since in Minnesota and San Francisco the nests I had visited had branchers or even fully flighted chicks. I thought maybe crazy Betty had an exceptionally late clutch, since she must have have laid her eggs around early April, and in Minnesota Great Horned Owls often lay in early Febuary. Since moving in, I have found many owl nests, including the one in the Aspens I in the third picture here, and they are all at the same stage. I guess I am just a lot further north than I thought.

Since I only have a point and shoot, there aren't a lot of great photographic possibilities for me, but hopefully as the owletts grow up I will get a couple of good pictures as they start learning to fly.