When Owlets Branch (feat. Clem the Climber)

After spending all of about the first 6 weeks of their lives in the nest, when a Great Horned Owlet leaves the nest they must learn to navigate the trees and branches where they will spend most of their lives.
Branching is part of the stage also known as fledgling (a bird with enough flight feathers to start flying). With the Great Horned Owlet however, they need a few weeks on the branches and with very short flights to build up their leg and wing muscles for distance flying and hunting.
In these video clips, recorded in the first days after Clem left the nest, what you are seeing is very normal for a branching owlet. No matter how anxious it may make us humans watching it when Clem looks about to lose their balance, it's all completely normal.
And yes, in branching school it is also normal for an owlet to fall. Sometimes they land on the ground and sometimes, like Clem at the end of this video, they can recover and land elsewhere. Either way, if uninjured and not sick, the owlet knows enough of how to climb and use their wings to get back up into the trees.
At the time of this recording, Clem is estimated to have been about 7 weeks old; it was 3 days since leaving the nest - although the first 24 hours were mostly lost for Clem's training as a windy storm blew in only 6 hours after they branched. Even after the storm they stayed hunkered down for a while more before beginning their branching school in earnest.
[Additional note: With full sun and overcast morning cloud cover starting to burn off, much of the lighting is harsh and inconsistent. Made more difficult of course because recording was now happening outside of the mostly static environment of the nest. I tried to adjust lighting so that you could see all of what Clem was doing. Apologies if some of the scenes come through as too bright.]
Additional information about Great Horned Owl branching is included with this awesome video posted by the Cornell Lab Bird folks:
• Owlet Fledges! Slips F...
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Thanks for watching! I'll be trying to bring everyone more owl posts but also other animal and nature videos as I get the non-owl content more organized. If there's something you'd like to see or questions about my videos please let me know in the comments. Happy Naturing! 🌿🌳🦉

[@cglovesdogs]

Way to go Clem! Wonderful video as always Mike!! I am amazed how you capture these monumentous moments in these beautiful baby owls lives! I saw all three babies today. All of them were over in the fir trees looking very healthy and at home!🦉