Two Owls and Three Coyotes

My total during a two week period

(But first, a correction. My last post was on a Coues White-tailed Deer that I saw in Madera Canyon. In the post, I said that the Coues was the smallest subspecies of White-tailed Deer in the United States. I was wrong. My friend Steve pointed out that the Key Deer, which are only found in the Florida Keys, are substantially smaller than our Coues Deer. The Coues are the next smallest species and they are substantially smaller than other White-tailed Deer species)

Back to today’s subject. We have entered the breeding season for Great Horned Owls in the Tucson area. I am hearing more reports of these birds being seen as they begin to stake out their breeding territories and nest sites. At Sweetwater Wetlands one morning I saw this nice Great Horned Owl perched in a wintery cottonwood tree. The branch it was on was directly over the path and apparently the owl was not comfortable with we humans walking under it so, even though we were quiet and walked slowly, it flew off to find a quieter spot to roost.

I’ve been walking around Sweetwater more often recently and very early one morning a Coyote appeared in the path, very close to where I had seen the Great Horned Owl a few days earlier. The Coyote wanted nothing to do with us but it paused and looked back often as it quickly wandered away.

Several days later I saw a group of what turned out to be five Coyotes running down a dirt road along the settling ponds at Sweetwater. The Coyotes passed by very quickly and one at a time. After the first few ran by and disappeared, I was able to get my camera up for the last two of them.

The next Coyote hesitated but kept moving slowly as it watched me.

Periodically a pair of Great Horned Owls nests near my neighborhood. One evening after sunset, I could hear some hooting just outside my kitchen window. When I went outside to look, an owl was sitting atop a dead mesquite tree at the side of my house. The Great Horned Owl was duetting (it was engaged in a duet) with its partner but turned to look at me.

The owl roused, and then flew off.

On another day, I saw one of those two neighborhood owls in a eucalyptus tree a few streets up from me. The Great Horned Owl was resting in deep shade.

These days that tree is a somewhat common daytime roost spot for the owl so I look closely at that tree almost every day. Many days the owl is gone but some days it is there. One day, the Great Horned Owl was sitting in practically the same exact spot where I had previously seen it. This time, the lighting was even thanks to a light cloud cover and I was able to get a very nice portrait of the Owl.

The Owls were mostly sitting still while the Coyotes were mostly moving fast. On any given day, each one of these are nice critters to spot.