December 19th was the Marquette Christmas bird count. We had a couple of great birds. My group had 27 total species, the most of any group. 

  They really are “GREAT” Horned Owls…..  By Alec Olivier


My dad and I were looking for shorebirds at the Gentz’s Golf Course in Beaver Grove when we got a phone call from Scot Stewart. He called to tell us there was an Adult Great Horned Owl at a house on rock st. in Marquette. We immediately headed for Marquette. On our way to Marquette we stopped at our house to pick up one of my brothers.

Once we found the house it was very easy to find the large owl perched in a tree in there backyard. The homeowners came out and I set up my spotting scope. We all got great looks. We watched it for around an hour and then went home. Lucky for me my mom wanted to see it, too, so I was able to go back and watch it.

We watched it for about 30 min when I looked at my mom and she looked at me. Did the owl just vocalize? Yes! It kept calling for another 15 min when it decided to take off and fly toward St. Peter’s Church! It was getting dark now and hard to see. We ran over to the Church where it flew out of a poor lit spot and we couldn’t see what it was doing in the poor lit spot.

From the Church it flew towards the bypass and landed on a telephone pole above the highway. My mom and brother went to get our car while I watched it. We drove over to the telephone pole and it flew to another telephone pole across the highway. When we got to the telephone pole across the highway the owl was still there. It stayed there for a few minutes before it flew towards Hurley field. We weren’t able to locate it again that night.

2 days later, my dad, my brother and I went to go look around the church for a nest. We parked the car started looking for any sign of owls. On the stairway leading into a side door of the church my dad found an owl pellet. We were close. My dad went inside the church and my brother and I walked across the street to get a better view of the church. I pointed my binoculars toward a possible nesting spot. There were two adult Great Horned Owls!
Not only was I lucky enough to find a Great Horned Owl nest but I was also on spring break! That means I could stay up later and watch them in the dark. This was the second year in a row when spring break has been the same time as a good bird (Slaty Backed Gull in 2014).

I saw a lot of cool stuff while watching the owls. I got to see them interact with one another and hear them vocalize a lot.

The male had a very noticeable pattern. It would “hoot” on the church, a tree across from the church, the trees at the house where I first saw the owl and the courthouse. It never went farther north than the the courthouse. I believe it was doing a lot of its hunting in the woods by the bypass. I think another pair of owls occupy the park cemetery and harlow park.

It was 22 days later on April 26th when we first saw owlets. There were a total of two.  
Unfortunately, the male owl was shot with a BB gun. It was rescued by a local rehab center. The owlets fledged and were last seen on May 27th.

On August 31st, there was a group of crows mobbing some kind of raptor in the woods north of the church. We were not able to find what kind of raptor it was but I like to think it was one of the owls.

The time spent with these owls was a highlight of 2015 and my birding career.