On a cold winter’s night, a “hoo-h’HOO-hoo-hoo” rings out from an area of pitch pines behind one of the dorms at the Stony Brook Southampton campus. A pair of great horned owls were having quite the discussion.

A male great horned owl at the Stony Brook Southampton campus. 

Great horned owls nest much earlier than other birds in our area. Females will typically start sitting on eggs by early February, and they will hatch 30 to 37 days later. Great horned owls do not build nests of their own. Rather, they use nests that were previously built by other animals such as red-tailed hawks, crows, and squirrels.

By early spring the eggs have hatched, and the owlets grow quickly. At approximately six weeks of age (sometimes much sooner especially if the nest is not large enough to contain them), they will begin to explore the area around the nest. Hopping from branch to branch, they are often referred to as “branchers.” During this time, it is very common for them to fall from the tree and end up on the ground.

Marisa Jeffers, director of student life at the Southampton campus, had also been hearing the “hoo-h’HOO-hoo-hoo” by the dorms and she was confident that the calls were consistently coming from a particular pine tree on the edge of the main lawn.

I stopped by the tree daily to inspect for any owl activity and one particular morning as I approached, I was greeted with several loud owl alarm calls and clicks.  When I walked around to the backside of the tree, there sat a great horned owlet.

I called the Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center in Hampton Bays for some assistance in re-nesting the owlet. They put me in touch with Joe Rocco from The Broken Antler, who they had been working with to re-nest great horned owls, 15 owls this year alone.

A re-nesting plan was quickly put into motion.  Within 15 minutes, Joe secured a makeshift nest to the tree and lined the bottom with leaves and pine needles. Once the new nest was constructed, I was raised in the boom with the little owlet and carefully placed it in the new nest.

Two weeks later, Joe informed me that he has another owlet, but unfortunately, this one’s parents are nowhere to be found. He says it is about the same age as the university’s owlet and asks if he can place it in our nest.  I agreed and we added it to the nest.

Mom and dad adopted the orphan and over the next couple of weeks, both owlets appeared to be doing good and growing at an amazing rate.

At roughly week seven, the owlets are fully feathered and capable of short flights. Due to the proximity to the road, the nest was spotted by some passerby photographers. The added daily “paparazzi” activity around the nest caused the owlets to depart the area much sooner than I would have liked, but when the “kids” leave the nest, we are never really ready for it.

By Christopher Paparo, Marine Sciences Center Manager, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences

Read the full story: https://news.stonybrook.edu/university/great-horned-owls-descend-on-stony-brook-southampton/