{"id":4311,"date":"2019-10-02T12:51:50","date_gmt":"2019-10-02T12:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/?p=4311"},"modified":"2019-10-02T13:05:50","modified_gmt":"2019-10-02T13:05:50","slug":"clip-of-the-week-great-horned-owl-chick-stretching-its-wings-arizona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/2019\/10\/02\/clip-of-the-week-great-horned-owl-chick-stretching-its-wings-arizona\/","title":{"rendered":"Clip of the Week &#8211; great horned owl chick stretching its wings"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Clip of the Week<\/h3>\n<p><span>This week&#8217;s clip shows a great horned owl (Bubo virginianus) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/stock-video\/great-horned-owl-(bubo-virginianus)-chick-stretching-its-wings-in-nest-in-a\/search\/detail-0_01626565.html\">chick stretching its wings<\/a> in nest in a saguaro cactus, while being groomed by its parent. It was filmed by John Cancalosi, in the Sonoran Desert, Arizona, USA.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding: 52.73% 0 0 0; position: relative;\"><iframe style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/352693156?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<h3>The great horned owl<\/h3>\n<p><span>An aggressive and powerful hunter, the great horned owl will take rabbits, hawks, snakes and skunks as prey, and even attack porcupines! (Often with fatal results for both predator and prey). <\/span>This has earned it the nickname &#8220;tiger owl&#8221;. The owl h<span>unts by watching from a high perch, then swooping down to capture the prey in its talons. In northern areas in winter, great horned owls may store uneaten prey frozen, coming back later to thaw out the carcass by &#8220;incubating&#8221; it!<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>John tells the story behind the clip<\/h3>\n<p><span>&#8220;This Spring I was lucky to find several owl nests and set up a hide on the nest that was best for photography. Normally, when I set up a hide on a nest in a saguaro cactus, I must build high towers to put the hide at the same level as the birds. This time I was lucky that one of the nests was located on a hill, so I was able to place my hide on the ground, and still be able to see into the nest, from a safe distance so as not to disturb the birds. This was the easiest setup that I had ever had on nest in a saguaro. I went into this hide in the pre-dawn for several weeks running. The parents were very attentive to the young and I was waiting for the right combination of light and behaviour to capture the photos and video that I was looking for. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>One day, as a storm approached, the winds threatened to blow me and the hide away. Then came the lightning. Should I bail out or stay and risk electrocution? I took the risk and survived, although there were some dicey moments as lightning strikes came way too close for comfort. The storm passed, and the wind, rain and lightning subsided. I was able to record one of the three chicks stretching its wings and being tenderly preened by its parent, as they dried off from the dousing they had just got. It was well worth weathering the storm for owls and photographer alike. Though of course, the owls had no choice!&#8221;<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery gallery-4311 style-scrollingstrip'><figure class='gallery-item col-0'><div class='gallery-icon portrait'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1015\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01506625.jpg\" class=\"attachment-gallery-strip-thumb size-gallery-strip-thumb\" alt=\"Great horned owl (Bubo virginianus) chicks nesting in saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea), near Oracle, Sonoran Desert, Arizona, USA, May.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01506625.jpg 1015w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01506625-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01506625-300x303.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01506625-768x775.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01506625-320x323.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01506625-375x378.jpg 375w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01506625-600x605.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01506625-900x908.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01506625-105x106.jpg 105w\" sizes=\"100vw\" title=\"Great horned owl (Bubo virginianus) chicks nesting in saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea), near Oracle, Sonoran Desert, Arizona, USA, May.\" \/><\/div><div class=\"gallery-overview-caption\"><strong>Great horned owl (Bubo virginianus) chicks nesting in saguaro cactus, Sonoran Desert, Arizona, USA, May.<\/strong> by Jack Dykinga<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure><figure class='gallery-item col-0'><div class='gallery-icon landscape'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01360201.jpg\" class=\"attachment-gallery-strip-thumb size-gallery-strip-thumb\" alt=\"Great Horned owl, (Bubo virginianus) in flight, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, March\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01360201.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01360201-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01360201-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01360201-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01360201-360x240.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01360201-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01360201-510x340.jpg 510w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01360201-320x213.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01360201-375x250.jpg 375w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01360201-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01360201-159x106.jpg 159w\" sizes=\"100vw\" title=\"Great Horned owl, (Bubo virginianus) in flight, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, March\" \/><\/div><div class=\"gallery-overview-caption\"><strong>Great Horned owl, (Bubo virginianus) in flight, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, March<\/strong> by Todd Mintz<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure><figure class='gallery-item col-0'><div class='gallery-icon landscape'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"697\" src=\"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01562967.jpg\" class=\"attachment-gallery-strip-thumb size-gallery-strip-thumb\" alt=\"Horned owl (Bubo virginianus) nest in Saguaro cactus, with parent and chicks, Santa Catalina Mountain Foothills, Sonoran Desert, Arizona, USA, April.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01562967.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01562967-150x102.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01562967-300x204.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01562967-768x523.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01562967-320x218.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01562967-375x255.jpg 375w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01562967-600x408.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01562967-900x613.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/01562967-156x106.jpg 156w\" sizes=\"100vw\" title=\"Horned owl (Bubo virginianus) nest in Saguaro cactus, with parent and chicks, Santa Catalina Mountain Foothills, Sonoran Desert, Arizona, USA, April.\" \/><\/div><div class=\"gallery-overview-caption\"><strong>Horned owl (Bubo virginianus) nest in Saguaro cactus, with parent and chicks, Santa Catalina Mountain Foothills, Sonoran Desert, Arizona, USA, April.<\/strong> by Jack Dykinga<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure><figure class='gallery-item col-0'><div class='gallery-icon portrait'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/00061893.jpg\" class=\"attachment-gallery-strip-thumb size-gallery-strip-thumb\" alt=\"Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) with rabbit it has captured, Minnesota\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/00061893.jpg 660w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/00061893-97x150.jpg 97w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/00061893-300x465.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/00061893-320x496.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/00061893-375x582.jpg 375w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/00061893-600x931.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/00061893-68x106.jpg 68w\" sizes=\"100vw\" title=\"Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) with rabbit it has captured, Minnesota\" \/><\/div><div class=\"gallery-overview-caption\"><strong>Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) with rabbit it has captured, Minnesota<\/strong> by Minden<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .gallery -->\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Clip of the Week This week&#8217;s clip shows a great horned owl (Bubo virginianus) chick stretching its wings in nest in a saguaro cactus, while being groomed by its parent. It was filmed by John Cancalosi, in the Sonoran Desert, Arizona, USA.\u00a0 The great horned owl An aggressive and powerful hunter, the great horned owl&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/2019\/10\/02\/clip-of-the-week-great-horned-owl-chick-stretching-its-wings-arizona\/\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"button\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4311"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4311"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4326,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4311\/revisions\/4326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturepl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}