Juvenile Great Horned Owl

This morning we went birding at Minto-Brown Park in Salem.  It started out rather frustrating as although we could hear lots of song birds, it was almost impossible to find the little guys in the thick leaf coverage of the cottonwood trees.  Then, I saw something big enough to recognize, this Great Horned Owl. Great Horned Owls are almost two feet in length from head to tail, so a lot easier to see than a four inch warbler. If you look closely you will notice all the white “fuzz” especially on the head, indicating that this is a juvenile. When I got home I was reading up on owls in a bird guide that said; “With its poorly developed sense of smell , this owl happily hunts skunks,”.  Well, what do you know, we did smell skunk along the trail!