This isn’t the same pair of great horned owls as was shown mating in a recent post of mine. They also live in Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve here in San Diego about a mile west of the others, though I suppose they’re still slumming it in the eyes of some owls since they live east of the 5. Years ago, I was able to come to the conclusion that this isn’t the same pair as the other one by being present for their evening wake up routines at the same time on different days on multiple occasions. I'd not visited this pair in awhile. Their territory is farther from the house with a rockier walk up and out left to contend with in the dark which was done last night while listening to the hauntingly beautiful sound of howling coyotes. I also try to see the closer pair more often because I’d like to figure out where they choose to nest, if indeed they do, and if it’s in a spot I can observe without venturing off trail or onto private property.
We were fortunate to see this male sail silently over our heads and land in a distant tree where he began hooting to his mate. She flew out from deep in the woods along the creek to a spot in a bare California sycamore. They followed each other into inaccessible darkness after a brief duet.
This is the male great horned owl. He has deeper hoots than she does.
That’s the female.
Zooming out, you can see them in their respective perches here. I was shooting with a 100-400mm telephoto lens and keeping my distance from them so as not to impact their behavior.
It left with me.
With so little else open during this pandemic, our local preserves and state parks are getting even more trashed than usual. These spaces were set aside first and foremost to protect the remnants of what was here after people began bulldozing land for our sprawling homes, office parks and large scale agriculture. It’s possible to recreate in them and celebrate their beauty while treating them with respect, but that requires thinking about the consequences of our actions. Discarding plastic, cigarette butts and tearing up narrow trails made more fragile by winter rains and heavy fog threatens the plants and wildlife that live within these areas. They have no other homes to retreat to.
This wintry sunset in beautiful Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve required no editing in Photoshop.
Prints of this photograph may be purchased by clicking on the image.
Happy New Year. Thanks for your continued emotional and financial support of living artists, any living artist. I’d say 2021 can’t be any worse than what we’ve just experienced, but entropy is clearly still a thing.
—Robin Street-Morris