Would you like to learn about great horned owls? I have with me Judy Wink.

Judy is the Executive Director Emeritus at the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center.

Judy is an ornithologist with over 50 years of field experience working with great horned owls.

We will start with an overview and then talk about the different stages of the nesting cycle, breaking it up into separate segments.

Judy, thank you for taking the time to talk to us about great horned owls.

Oh, it's my pleasure.

You know, this is my vocation and avocation, so anything I can impart as far as information, I really like that.

Since we're starting with the overview, we will cover where these birds are, a little bit about their families and adaptations, and just very cursorily, something about diet.

And the reason for this is as we get into these segments, we will get more specific on this and maybe fill in some of the holes about these birds.

So let's start with where do we find them.

They are cosmopolitan.

I have seen them on every continent, excluding the polar ice caps and some remote islands.

Cosmopolitan, because they're opportunists.

They can eat anything that is on the hoof or wing and are seasonal in their hunting skills, and they will seize whatever opportunity is available for food.

I'll probably use the term resource a lot.

And resource I want to define as this is what their food is at a given time.

And as I said, they are somewhat varied in their diet.

So they go from earthworms to turkeys.

So we'll go into that in a little more detail.

As far as their adaptations, they are top predators.

They are the apex.

They have the gear, talons and beak to hunt down anything up to about eight pounds.

Now they will not take an eight pound thing on the wing, but they will come back to the site and feed on it on a number of occasions.

Although they're cosmopolitan and we find great horned owls everywhere, we're going to focus primarily on our local birds.

We'll focus mainly on the mid-Atlantic region.

Although these birds are more alike than they are different, whether we're looking at them in the U.S. or whether we're looking at them in Europe, they will feed primarily on the same things.

They will nest primarily in the same area.

And their habitat happens to be open country for hunting and kind of woodlots for roosting, nesting, and kind of their home territory.

But they do need open area for the hunt.

The birds have adaptations in that they fly silently.

They have great weaponry.

Actually even before the nestlings leave the nest, the most developed part of their physical being are the talons and the beak.

So they have the gear to get the job done when it comes to hunting.

That silent flight is an added adaptation that helps them overcome ground or air prey items.

The possibility of seeing one of these birds, depending on the time of the year when you're looking, they are nocturnal and you'd have to have sharp eyes, but you can readily hear their hoots so you can locate them by that.

If you're out in the woods, particularly in December and January, you'll be able to locate one of these birds and satisfy your curiosity.