Great Horned Owl On Antelope Island Causeway This Morning
Just a quick post to report what was an unusual event this morning, at least for me. This is simply a documentary post, as the photos are of mediocre quality. In the hundreds of mornings I’ve spent on the island, I’ve never seen a Great Horned Owl along the causeway. This one was perched on some rocks on the south side of the first bridge. But it flew a quarter-mile west before I got any shots off so I followed it and just as I was about to click the shutter it took off again and headed back to the same area by the first bridge… where it perched on another rock. After a few minutes… it took off once again… and headed almost straight for me. This is the last shot I got before it disappeared below the rabbitbrush along the side of the bridge. Many thanks to the generous couple who approached my vehicle as I was photographing a coyote on the other side of the bridge (where the light was at a much better angle) and told us about this owl. Without their kind notification we’d have never even known the bird was there. I’ve seen and photographed GHO’s multiple times on the island, in a variety of settings, but had never before seen one on the causeway. And it was even relatively late in the morning (10:30 AM) which surprised me further, since it was so much out in the open. Ron