Would you like to learn about Great Horned Owls?

Judy Wink of the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center will be sharing with us, her extensive knowledge of the Great Horned Owl. Judy is an ornithologist with well over 50 years of field experience working with Great Horned Owls. Her interest began at age 7 when she learned from her mentor, ornithologist Maurice Broun (first warden of Hawk Mountain), how to locate horned owl nests. This mentorship continued for the next 30 years. During her time as an undergraduate she was an intern for the Game Commission studying horned owls. Her masters thesis was on preparatory skills of the Great Horned Owl. Throughout this time and over the next 18 years she conducted fieldwork at Hawk Mountain. Judy was instrumental in getting the $5 bounty on Great Horned Owls lifted in Pennsylvania. She testified at hearings proving through her research that the horned owl was not responsible for the decline of the introduced pheasant population.

I have broken up this talk (audio) into segments. Judy will start with an overview including where Great Horned Owls are found and address their adaptations such as their silent flight. She will move into the nesting cycle and we’ll learn what happens during the pair bonding phase. Following that, Judy will talk about nesting - Did you know the eggs are typically laid 2 days apart and the ratio is usually 50/50, one male, one female? In the next and following segments Judy will talk about the owlets - their development and what they do on the nest to prepare to be on their own. In the final segments we will learn about fledging, their movement during this stage and the hunting skills they will need to survive. After the segments there is a Question & Answer section and “Stories to Tell” where Judy will share with us stories from her field work.

As you move through these segments you will see pictures and a few videos related to the particular section. The segments are as follows:

Total audio time for all segments: 58 minutes

Transcripts - There is a transcript at the bottom of each page for that particular segment.

Select from the list above or from the pictures below to view/hear each segment, and don’t miss the Q&A and Stories to Tell.

All photography is by me (Adele) unless otherwise noted.

Road Trip Version - Trouble finding time to listen to all the segments, how about listening from your smart phone during your next road trip. I have created an audio of all the segments and stories non-stop. It is 1.05 hours long. Don’t forget to come back to this page later to view all of the pictures and videos.