Great Horned Owl. Photographed 2012 in Fort Myers, Florida. Copyright by Nick Adams, photographer.
Digital file courtesy of the artist.

By Paul Goldfinger

We were on a bike ride in Fort Myers, Fla, when we saw a couple looking through a telescope at a high palm tree. I asked them what they were doing, and they let Eileen and me take a peek. For the last few weeks they had been observing a couple of Great Horned Owls. The female was sitting on a branch, and her baby was next to her. Nearby, in another tall tree, was the male. These birds were big and they looked mysterious.

These owls are nocturnal, so when they sit up there, quite still, during the day, they are probably sleeping. They eat little animals at night, like mice, and they swallow them in large chunks. Then they regurgitate “pellets” which biology students like to study to find out what the owls were dining on. People sell the pellets on the Internet. But if you are interested, you can probably get a good deal on E-Bay.

Nick Adams is a professional photographer who has a studio on Sanibel Island , on the west coast of Fla. That is a great location for wild shore birds because of the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge there. But you can also see shore birds just hanging around in neighborhoods, like these birds. One morning we saw a Great Blue Heron, a Wood Stork and a Great White Egret. And then there’s Ibis in the morning.

You can sometimes see such birds over at Fletcher Lake. They are the true “snowbirds,” and they come to Jersey to hunt the elusive Wegman Gefilte Fish.

We contacted Nick, and he sent us a photo file of the Fort Myers owl to share with you.

Here is what the Great Horned Owl sounds like : it is a recording of two of them by John Neville. It could be the theme song for Hooters: