In Rockville, a welcome attraction: an owlet’s quest to leave the nest

Bird fans catch a glimpse at RedGate Park

By Andrew Schotz

An owlet and an adult female owl wait together in a nest at RedGate Park in Rockville on March 12. Photo by Toni Robinson

In many years of bird watching, Vickie Baily had documented 207 species in Montgomery County. Recently, she saw her first great horned owl — at RedGate Park in Rockville.

She and other bird enthusiasts have visited the park a lot the last few weeks to get a look at an owl family there. An adult male and an adult female are keeping their eyes on their owlet, which is in a nest high in a tree, far back from a path.

Great horned owls can be found across North and South America, but their camouflaged appearance makes them tough to see in the woods.

The sighting has created buzz and generated a bunch of photos posted on a website devoted to RedGate Park.

Wayne Breslyn, part of a group called Friends of RedGate Park, said the owls provide another good reason to protect the park — the former RedGate Golf Course — from possible development. Two possibilities being considered are a veterans home and a group home for people with mental and physical impairments.

Breslyn promotes the value of the park — where more than 130 bird species reportedly have been identified — to visitors who come to see the owls.

But there is a balance between excitement about the owls, he said, and caution about letting people get too close. Observers need to stand back and give the birds plenty of space.

The nest area is supposed to be a secret. But Breslyn said signs asking people to keep their distance are a clue. It’s also not hard to notice people looking up through their binoculars and pointing their cameras, he said.

A male great horned owl at RedGate Park in Rockville on March 12. Photo by Steve Brynes

A page on the RedGate Park website credits Rockville birder Anne Mytych with first spotting one of the great horned owls.

Mytych said she was standing at the park that day when she thought she saw a merlin. As she scanned the sky, she instead noticed a male great horned owl in a tree. She had seen one before in Arizona, but not in Maryland.

Word got around to Vickie Baily and other birders, who spent the next few days looking for the bird.

Baily found the nest, although she considers it a team effort.

One way to track an owl’s nest, she said, is by the presence of crows trying to harass owls, their enemies. She saw the crows, then saw the nest — which actually had been built by red-shouldered hawks. Baily said it’s common for owls to use a nest built and abandoned by another bird or animal, and not do much to fix it up.

Baily thought the nest was empty, but another birder looked, too, and noticed owl tufts, which look like horns, sticking out. It was occupied.

Mytych estimated that the nest is about 80 feet in the air.

Baily said a rough guess is that the chick hatched around Feb. 29.

The owlet probably is ready to leave the nest soon, she said.

When that happens, it will learn to fly in the area and its parents will watch over their baby. The parents might be territorial and attack anyone seen as encroaching their space, she said, hence the need for people to observe from a safe distance.

“People are so excited,” Baily said. “It’s like having a royal.”

She said people who are not birders are flocking to the park, too.

Breslyn said a photo he posted of the owls on a Nextdoor community web page took off in popularity, with more than 140 likes and about 60 comments.

“A lot like the concept of an owl,” Baily said. “How it looks. … Its sense of mystery.”