Junior (above) and Penelope (below right)
The year 2003 was the year of the hawks. A pair of Cooper's Hawks built a nest less than 200 yards from the owl's home grove. This greatly alarmed the parents who took their young up Killbuck Creek as soon as they fledged. We caught a few glimpses of the owl family through the summer in deep woods nearly a mile north of the home grove but were never able to get pictures. We think they raised two owlets in 2003.
On May 20, 2004, we found Junior with a baby owl (above). Although we were not able to photograph two babies at the same time, we are confident that there were two from sounds we could hear. Shortly after these pictures were taken, the parents again took their young to the deep woods up the creek. While the hawks had moved on, the memory was evidently fresh and they took no chances of their precious babies being snatched by a hawk.
Here are Penelope and Junior at the time their babies fledged in May.
