April 14, 2019 - Great Horned Owl Nest - 3
Read MoreHere’s my last set of owl family photos. This picture was taken from a different angle than the others I have shown you. It emphasizes the massive size of the nest which was originally built by an eagle. Eagles use a nest over and over for many years. Each year, they add more material to the nest. Eventually, it gets huge and sometimes the tree falls over from the weight of the nest.
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This photo shows the underside of a wing as one of the baby owls stretched it out. The wing feathers (called primaries) have grown out but not fully opened yet. I had never seen this before, so I asked an expert about it. Karla Bloem, Executive Director of the International Owl Center in Houston, Minnesota, told me this. “When feathers are growing in, they are in a thin keratin sheath and the shafts of the feathers are filled with blood. They are called “pin feathers” at this time. As they grow out of the sheaths, the feathers unfurl, and the keratin sheath gradually crumbles. Once fully grown, the blood recedes out of the shaft and the feathers are considered “hard penned.” They are functionally dead at that point, just like our hair.”
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