Not the owls again

Okay, okay, I'm getting a little obsessed, I know, with the owls but I had to take this photo of Hootie sitting in a 20 mph wind and his little ear tufts are blowing, too. (The ear tufts are feather, not horns.) They came in to roost about 6:30 AM this morning and both of them sat first in the Russian Olive outside our bedroom window. They had a little altercation which might be owl mating. Then Hooter sat and hooted for a while then flew on to her tree. This is the male, Hootie. He is smaller. Hooter is female, she is bigger. (I found this out on my trusty Wikipedia.) Great Horned Owls are found all over from the Arctic to South American. They are not an endangered species. They mate this time of year and nest in January and February. Those are going to be some cold chicks! The hooting this morning, we think, has to do with the mating.  For two days Hooter didn't come home. We saw her in a neighbor's lone tree Sunday morning which is about 4 miles from us as the owl flies.  She came back this morning.They sit and sleep all day in the trees and fly out low over the sage brush right after sundown and come back right before sunrise. They have quite the wing span. Awesome creatures!