Home»Portola Valley Ranch, Windy Hill, Etc.»8/5/2024 Great Horned Owls on Sweet Springs Trail

Interesting activity on the ground. What is that dead body?

One dark-feathered owl sits in a California Bay Tree below the trail, watching me, bobbing her head diagonally to get a better fix on me. (I am not sure of the gender of course, but females do tend to be larger, and this was the larger of the two.) The other, white, smaller, looking a little teenager awkward, swoops down to the ground and starts worrying a patch of bones fur and flesh that is still on the ground. My guess is, the larger owl already had her fill?

LMK if you can make any sense of this activity. I only include one photo of the larger stationary owl, not much going on up there.

Thanks to Dudley and Nick for the heads up, to Helen for seeing these owls this morning, and to Nala for sitting still.