We noticed one day that a low hanging laurel sumac was playing host to a day roosting great horned owl. I noticed pellets under an adjacent sumac, but their number and quality lead me to believe the spot was a one-time stop. We inspected the sumac in question and found lots of white wash, down feathers and numerous pellets. All of these signs point to a regularly used day roosting owl spot.
One would never suspect a 3 1/2 in diameter branch, only about 3 feet off the ground, would be home to such an impressive bird of prey. We setup our video trail camera in the sumac making sure we gave the owl its room, but secure and close enough to capture his return. After a week of waiting we were pleased to find 100+ videos of the owl preening, sleeping and preening some more. Below are the first two videos of many more to come.
Great Horned Owl