Great Horned Owl Mating Pair

A pair of Great Horned Owls are going to raise a family high in a longleaf pine tree in the Backyard. These are huge high profile raptors day and night! Here they are out in the open in the top of the tree before sunset and its about time to go hunting! I think they are still in the courtship stage and eggs have not been laid yet. GHOs don' build nests but will likely use a large junction where the big main branches of the tree top spread out leaving a little bowl.
The huge birds need big meals.
Filmed with Oneleaf.ai Find NV200 LRF 50mm 4K Day/Night Vision Binoculars with Laser Rangefinder available on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3wGEY2t
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A little later after dark the male has killed a cottontail rabbit and is looking to give it to the female
he decides to cache it in the crook of the branch, but after waiting awhile decides to eat some of the rabbit. A little later he puts it back on the branch and takes off. About an hour later he comes back and gets the rabbit for the female. It is now totally dark so the night vision binoculars do a great job of recording this about 170 feet away and 70 feet high in the pine tree.

The GHO's hunting grounds are open areas on the forest floor and open areas at the forest edges.
They love rabbits probably above all as well as snakes and rats. Marsh rabbits are rare now, cottontails like the one in the tree much more common. The big owls will occasionally take smaller possums, young raccoons and skunks and rarely small armadillos. And why anyone would let their house cat out at night around here is beyond me, they must not like their cat. Keep your cats indoors please!

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