Great Horned Owlet with Snake

by Judi Dressler

Title

Great Horned Owlet with Snake

Artist

Judi Dressler

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

Momma Great Horned Owl delivered a live garter snake to one of her two young owlets. After watching for a couple minutes, she flew off, confidant that the young one would manage. This owlet had fledged from the nest, but was still a baby, and it had no idea how to eat a snake! Eventually s/he did manage to swallow the snake, but not until after quite a fight was put up by the valiant snake. The other owlet was very interested in the whole thing!

With its long, earlike tufts, intimidating yellow-eyed stare, and deep hooting voice, the large Great Horned Owl is the quintessential owl of storybooks. Aggressive and powerful in its hunting, this powerful predator can take down birds and mammals even larger than itself, but it also dines on daintier fare such as tiny scorpions, mice, and frogs. Great Horned Owls begin nesting very early in the north, and their deep hoots may be heard rolling across the forest on mid-winter nights. It’s one of the most common owls in North America, equally at home in deserts, wetlands, forests, grasslands, backyards, cities, and almost any other semi-open habitat between the Arctic and the tropics.

Photo taken in Longmont, Colorado, on April 29, 2021

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Cover Photo for Colorado Outdoor Magazine's 2021 November/December Photography Issue.
See https://coloradooutdoorsmag.com/magazine/ for back issues.

The story behind this photo was a blog post in the online magazine, including 8 images and the story written by me.

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Won 1st Place in FAA's "Bird Catch of the Day" contest, on 8/3/2023

Won 1st Place in FAA's THE WONDER OF WILDLIFE contest, on 5/25/2022

Won 1st Place in FAA's NEW LOGO WILDLIFE ONE A DAY AUGUST 2021 contest, on 7/30/2021

Tied for 1st Place in FAA's BLOW OUR MINDS WITH YOUR ANIMALS BIRDS AND INSECTS contest on 9/1/2021

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Descriptive keywords and tags for this image include great horned owls, owls, babies, young, snake, garter snake, grass snake, owlets, prey, eating, siblings, cute, adorable, raptors, tree, birds, birds of prey, colorado, gho, bubo virginianus, bubo, wild, wildlife, nature, fine art, judi dressler, and dressler.

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July 21st, 2021

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