Rondeau Ric

Great Horned Owl chick, London Ontario, April 17, 2017 A well known owl near downtown London. The chicks fledged yesterday and we just saw the one plus an adult. Bubo virginianus Great Horned Owls have large eyes, pupils that open widely in the dark, and retinas containing many rod cells for excellent night vision. Their eyes don’t move in their sockets, but they can swivel their heads more than 180 degrees to look in any direction. They also have sensitive hearing, thanks in part to facial disc feathers that direct sound waves to their ears.

This great horned owl chick is in still in the nest. It's sibling left yesterday and is somewhere else in the tree. The nest appears to be a broken branch in the shape of a bowl. Bubo virginianus When clenched, a Great Horned Owl’s strong talons require a force of 28 pounds to open. The owls use this deadly grip to sever the spine of large prey. The oldest Great Horned Owl on record was at least 28 years old when it was found in Ohio in 2005. source - Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

The black swan is a large waterbird, a species of swan, which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. The species was hunted to extinction in New Zealand, but later reintroduced which is where we saw them. In proportion to its size, the black swan has the longest neck of any swan species. The chicks hatch covered in light grey down. Cygnus atratus