WE ENERGIES GHO - 2010

catwoman · **Posted:** Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:52 am

PLEASE BEGIN YOUR POSTS HERE!

kittenface · **Posted:** Wed Sep 30, 2009 7:51 pm

Well they have cleaned the box and put the rocks and gravel back I wonder how long it will be before the owls are back

catwoman · **Posted:** Wed Sep 30, 2009 8:26 pm

Good catch, Kittenface! I don't know much about owls, so I don't know how long it should be before we see them. Hopefully, they'll nest here again this year!

bev. · **Posted:** Fri Oct 30, 2009 9:49 am

this has become one of my favorite owl site. the biologists here have sure worked hard to keep the owls and the falcons happy. :tot2:

kittenface · **Posted:** Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:24 pm

Ok now I know there isn't a owl here BUT someone has been in this box in the last 24 hours I look every day and the gravel is messed up
The Falcons haven't been here in well over a month

catwoman · **Posted:** Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:57 pm

Sounds good, Kittenface! Bet you're right! :banasan:

kittenface · **Posted:** Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:16 pm

You know I just looked and we should be seeing someone in
about 2 weeks or so it was last Dec 30th that SGB caught momma there

Beth · **Posted:** Thu Dec 17, 2009 8:23 pm

Thanks for checking the GHO nest Kitten, won't be long!

kittenface · **Posted:** Thu Dec 31, 2009 11:59 am

SAME AS LAST YEAR FOR THE FIRST PICTURE OF HER
I lightened a 7am picture and it look as if she wa there then she wasn't there
at last light last night so she came in between 4pm Dec 30th and 7am Dec 31st

Beth · **Posted:** Thu Dec 31, 2009 1:04 pm

Oak Creek Power Plant Great Horned Owl Saga History...

Peregrine Falcons have been nesting at Oak Creek Power Plant since 1998. Between 1998-2004, they occupied a nest box mounted at the catwalk level on one of the chimneys. In 2005, a new nest box was constructed and mounted inside the top floor of the old north plant where a window had been removed to serve as the entrance to the nest box. All in all, both nest boxes served the falcons well, and as of 2008, a total of 38 young have been produced at this site.
But on the morning of Jan. 4, 2008 when I checked the Oak Creek nest box webcam, there were no peregrines present, and I was shocked to see instead, a great horned owl perched on the front deck of the nest box. This was especially surprising knowing that the adult pair of falcons at this site were on territory and seen regularly in the nest box.

For the ensuing three months, a standoff existed between the owls and the peregrines. The falcons knew enough not to go into their nest box where the owl would certainly be the victor in any confrontation, and the owl knew not to leave the nest box and expose itself to the wrath of the falcons in the air. In the end, the owls were successful in hatching two eggs and fledging two young, which were banded March 6. Both young fledged between April 5-7, and one was found dead beneath the nest box the morning after it fledged.
On the morning of April 11, the surviving owlet was found perched on the arm of a cherry picker in a construction area and subsequently captured and released in a nearby wooded area. Then on April 17, just when we thought things were going to calm down, the adult female found owl herself caught up in some metal grid work and was rescued, rehabilitated and released again on site on May 12.
While the owl was incubating her eggs, another nest box was installed about 100 yards south of the one they had taken over so the peregrines would have another option for a place to nest. Interestingly, early on the morning after the second owlet fledged, Bill Holton and I observed the female peregrine coursing back and forth in front of her old nest box and the new nest box almost to make sure the owls were gone. She then landed twice in the new nest box and laid her first egg there a week later.
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Pics from 2009 banding...We had 3 sweeties :loveheart2: