Eagles Out, Owls In

On our last visit to Boca, we discovered that our eagle friends that live across the street were nowhere to be found, and in their place were these two adult great horned owls, and their two babies.  

See above, the babies peeking out of the nest.  

We were kind of concerned, and wondering what happened, because in our minds, Bald Eagles don't get kicked out of nests.  They seem to me to be the ultimate predator.  Anyway, they were gone, and for two baby owls to be seen, these birds had to have inhabited this nest for a while.

Well it turns out, after a long chat with Doris Mager the Eagle Lady, who pulled up in her camper van the day we were leaving, that great horned owls take over nests wherever and whenever they decide, and there is nothing the other birds can do about it, even a bird as large as the Bald Eagle.  Scroll down this article of Doris, and see her raptor shirt she has on, and imagine the owl shirt she had on when we met her.  She's quite a character, even spent six days living in an eagles nest one year to raise money for the audobon society.  

While these owls are so cool to look at, I can't help but be kind of mad that they are such usurpers.  What hogs, can't they make their own nests??

Since they don't appreciate how hard a bird has to work to create these huge nests, they don't often stay long, sometimes leaving after a year to go take over someone else's hard earned nest.  If this is the case, our Eagle friends might be back, or they might build a new nest and stay there.  

In the meantime we will just enjoy these new cool birds while they last.  

In other news, the blog is now private, so if you know anyone that would like an invite, let me know.