Great Horned Owl at the Merced National Wildlife Refuge (and a scene worthy of the Exorcist)

Owls have been frustrating for me. I have yet to see one in my normal haunts on the Tuolumne River Parkway trail, my campus, or almost anywhere else I go. But one place has proven dependable over the last few years: the Merced National Wildlife Refuge between Los Banos and Merced in the Great Valley. We almost always see a Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus), either at the Bittern Marsh, or the Cottonwood Trees along the eastern section of the autotour.

The last sighting was exactly one month ago. We headed out to the refuge this afternoon, and I walked the same Bittern Marsh trail that I walked last month, and to my surprise, I saw another Great Horned Owl, quite possibly in the same tree. I would say that it is the same individual, but this one seems a bit thinner (maybe it's the angle).

Today was another case of being closer to the bird that is comfortable, but I didn't see the bird until I was actually walking past it (about 40 feet way), but this time it didn't scare or fly away. It just kept an eye on me (well, two eyes...two very intense eyes).

I was about to walk on when the owl looked away. I had a feeling it might look back at me again, so I turned on the video and true to form, the head swiveled 270 degrees. I immediately thought of Megan in "The Exorcist".  It works great for them when they need to keep an eye out for potential prey without moving around a lot.


The Merced Refuge has several nice walking trails in addition to the six mile auto-tour. It is already full of all kinds of birds, especially thousands of Sandhill Cranes. There are hundreds of Snow Geese, but thousands more are on their way. If you find yourself anywhere near Merced in the next few months, be sure to check it out. It is always interesting, and when tens of thousands of birds take flight all at once, it is spectacular.

The owl is just about in the center of the picture.