Over the two years we’ve lived here in Atlanta, we have heard, but never seen, a Great Horned Owl. We could sit out on our deck and hear them calling to each other back and forth through the pines, especially in the Fall/Winter. A couple of times we’ve seen a brief glimpse of a big shadow flying between the trees but never saw the entire bird. Well, yesterday that changed!
Sitting On The Deck Minding Our Business
It was a beautiful Christmas day with temps right around 62. We were sitting on our deck watching the birds come and go from the feeder when we heard the familiar call of the Great Horned Owl. He seemed to be way off in the distance, a few yards over. A couple minutes later the sound was much closer. Most of the time we hear them at dusk, when it’s too dark to see anything. This time it was 3PM and still very light outside so I kept my eyes open in case I might actually see something.
A Big Shadow In The Corner Of My Eye
All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a big bird flying to the top of the neighbor’s pine tree. I said to Pam, “over there” and we looked over in the direction of the shadow to see the owl perch on the tippy-top of a pine tree, about 100 feet up in the air. Fortunately we had the camera with us out there so I was able to take some pictures:
I had to use maximum (12x) zoom on the camera and crop the pictures quite a bit to get these but they came out great as far as I’m concerned 
The owl sat up there for about 5 minutes turning his head from side to side to listen to the other owls call. We heard two others besides him. Finally he flew off the tree towards one of the other owls. We saw him again a bit later sitting partway down a tree right before dusk.
Worth The Wait
While it was frustrating hearing the owls for two years without seeing them, it was worth the wait! We were able to get some good pictures of the Great Horned Owl as well as fantastic views with the binoculars. There was enough light and it was a nice clear day. That was the first time I had seen an owl in the wild since I was a kid and the 1st time ever for Pam. She was very excited to finally see one somewhere else besides the Zoo!
Now that we’ve seen the Owl we hope to see him again very soon. They are magnificent birds and I think it’s neat that they are living amongst all of us people like this. It shows how much nature is right in your backyard if you listen, and look, long enough!
