she has a hook

My current favorite owl who I call "tucked-away owl" because she sits way up in a pine tree and is really hard to spot even when you know where to look.

I think this is a female based on the coloration. I read that females have more spots and usually are a bit more brown/darker than males. The owl I believe is her mate lives a few blocks away and seems lighter overall.

I love the way the one claw just peeks out, looking like some kind of hook on the chest.
 

Tucked away

This barn owl seems to have returned to one of its regular roosts tucked way up in a dense pine tree.

I hope its young are doing well.

How did you get your name?

Barn Owls in a barn!

My first time seeing what I assume is the reason they have their name.

 

16 owls spotted on Memorial Day!

Because of all the new owlets I was lucky enough to see 16 owls on my normal 4 mile loop in golden gate park!

Mom(?) with a few owlets. I did see at lest 3 owlets in the nest.

Curious owlet keeping an eye on me.

I think this was mom(?) coming back from hunting earlier in the morning

This is a great-horned owl mom keeping an eye on a nest with two owlets in it. Not posting images of the nest because it's too hard to hide the location and I can imagine crowds forming at the very public location.

These two did not seem happy to see me -:[] They don't seem to have a nest and it's my understanding that it's late in the season so they probably won't be having any owlets this season? I'm new to this so not really sure but it looked like they just paired up a few weeks ago, seemed to be looking for a nest but now just seem to be hanging out in a few different locations which seems like non breading behaviour?

This is a male keeping an eye on his mate that is in a nest that is way up and hard to see. I usually spot her tail and back but usually can't see much more of her. I believe this is the female who's mate was killed a few months ago. I was super happy when I saw these to meeting up once she left her first a few weeks after he first mate was killed. Fingers crossed things work out this time.

I'm pretty sure this is the male of a pair of barn owls that have a nest in a super public landmark that some how few people seem to know about. To be fair it's high enough to be hard to get to or see unless you know where to stand so I think 99.9% percent of people never notice it. The female of the pair is the first owl I ever spotted and was also the one I saw the most because she spent most of the time in one roosting spot until she started her nest. I know they currently have at least 3 owlets. Hoping they make it.
 

Three New Barn Owls in the Neighborhood!!!

Also one of the parents keeping an eye on us before moving out of the way so we could see the three owlets.

I'm keeping an eye on two more barn owl nests and two great horned owl nests. Have briefly seen at least the top of one great horned owlet.

Late Night Traffic Enforcement Officer

Spotted on a 1am walk along Great Highway. I have been walking the Great Highway path at dawn, sunset and late at night on clear fairly bright moon lit nights in hopes of seeing a barn owl in our neighborhood and I finally spotted one last night!

Who's There?

I spotted a bunch of old owl pellets and bones on the ground right under a hole in a tree about a month ago. They all looked old and I never saw anything in the whole.

Last week I walked by and noticed a lot of new looking pellets and step back a bit and saw the top of a barn owls head!

It is on my normal walk so I look into the whole from a nearby hill and have managed to catch the barn owl looking back a few times. When it notices me it usually ducks down to where I can only see the top of it's head from the hill.

I think it may be one of the owls I have seen in other areas and other people have seen flying around in that same area.

Fingers crossed for some little ones during the mating season.

 

Who needs two good eyes?!

She looks tough and I wouldn't mess with her.

Poor mouse but glad she doesn't seem to have any trouble getting a meal.

Peaking out of the grass on top of the kill.

Owl rich day!

I went on two walks today and saw at least 5 individual owls.

No pictures from the dawn walk but I saw two flying, one screeching then flying right over my head! I heard at least 4 great horned owls and found a location new to me that I went back to later.

On the sunset walk I saw two Barn Owls and two Great Horned Owls.

I also heard another Great Horned Owl hooting in the new area I scoped out in the morning but couldn't see it. Just for fun I took a few pictures of where I heard the hoots. It turns out one of the pictures I took had the owl in it!

Can you spot the owl ? I made it easier by cropping the image some.

I know which tree that is so I'm going to take a look next time I'm out.

So many owls today!

 

New barn owl spotted me

I took a fairly long walk yesterday seeing a lot of fun waves, birds, and bugs but spotting this barn owl, that is new to me, was my favorite moment.

I was checking a tree that I have seen a different barn owl in and didn't see anyone in the normal spot. Thinking the tree was empty I stepped under to look for any fresh signs like owl pellets and whitewash (bird poo -:)

Not seeing anything fresh I looked up and was surprised to see this super cute small (female?) looking down at me. Since I had my camera out I quietly took a couple of shots and moved away slowly to avoid disturbing it any more than I already had.

It looked smaller and darker than any of the barn owls I have seen in that area so I think it must be new to me. Though I bet it has seen me wandering around the area before.

At first I thought the images weren't very good because of the branches right across the face but realized they capture the moment we shared better than a clear shot ever could.

Walk left me feeling melancholy

It started off very nice seeing a bunch of birds. All regulars I was hoping to see.

Norther Flicker

Barn Owl

Female Belted

Then I walked up to a lake I haven't been to in a few weeks and to my surprise there was a very handsome male Kingfisher.

He was catching fish sitting in spots that were easy to see him. Then he flew off. I headed toward home also in the direction he flew off in hoping I might see him at one of the other two lakes I would pass.

At the 2nd lake there was a Great Egret looking very photogenic.

While taking photos of the egret there were a couple of Red-shouldered Hawks making a ruckus and flying into low bushes.

I just managed to get a blurry picture.

It was making a lot of noises so I moved to where I could get a better view and saw the hawk covering something up.

To my surprise it had taken a Belted Kingfisher which I suspect was the one I had seen earlier.

While I know the hawk needs to eat just like the kingfisher catching fish it still made me feel a bit sad at the moment then faded into a lingering melancholy.

On the way out I saw another regular (10) Great Horned Owl hidden in one of it's regular spots keeping a close eye on everything.

Still so amazed and happy to have Golden Gate Park for these amazing walks and experiences.

Walk in the park

 Here are pictures from yesterdays walk in the Golden Gate Park. They are in the order that I came across each.

I also met @woodynotallen just before the coyote snuck up behind us as we walked over to see the barn owl.

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Coyote

Red-shouldered Hawk

Barn Owl

Racoon

Great Horned Owls

Hard not to ❤️ an afternoon walk in GGP with so many nice creatures and people.