Winter probably won't last forever

Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo ... hooooo.

The Woody Woodpecker-patterned call started shortly after 1 a.m. on a cold January morning. Mating season for the neighborhood's great horned owls has begun.

A great horned owl perches most of the day in the cover of a 60-foot-tall white spruce that is about 50 feet from my bedroom window. He has a perfect view of a nesting site in a sycamore about 100 yards to the north.

Great horned owls have a life span of more than 10 years in the wild. I imagine it is the same bird or a descendent that considers this little wooded area in Marion County's urban forest his home base, returning year after year.

His late night and predawn call signals his territory and communicates with his mate. Although a male's territory can range up to three square miles, other owls can hear his call even further away. Shortly after sunrise a krooo-oo lets crows and other would-be-intruders know that he's had an active night and would prefer to be left alone.

This pair of owls usually prefers the comfort of the highest branches of some of the tallest trees in the neighborhood, making it difficult to locate and observe the birds from below.

From time to time, however, a patient observer can find the pair preening one another or scraping their bills together. It's part of the mating dance. The birds generally are solitary during the rest of the year.

I haven't put in the time to watch one of the birds catch a meal, but I'll see them occasionally move to lower branches late in the evening to look for prey.

Great horned owls are among the most adaptable creatures because they'll eat just about anything. Although they prefer rabbits, any rodent will do; as will neighborhood crows, mourning doves, raccoons and family pets.

Great horned owls also will take hawks, ducks, herons, frogs and snakes. Almost any creature that walks, hops, crawls, or slithers -- and isn't several times larger than a great horned owl -- could be dinner.

Smaller meals are swallowed whole, with larger ones taken to their favorite roost. Remains of the prey often can be found on the ground below, once mealtime is over.

Two-feet tall and with wingspans up to 60 inches, these bad boys and girls don't need to make nests. If they can't find a suitable cavity in a tree, a crow, hawk, squirrel or heron nest will do.

A few years ago, the birds fledged two owlets from a hole in that old sycamore. The parents and youngsters provided the neighborhood with a lot of entertainment that spring. The kids would hang out on a limb -- crows circling and cawing overhead -- waiting for mom and dad to bring home dinner.

Thoughts like these help me believe that winter probably won't last forever.

Stephen Sellers, editor