West Bend, WI – There’s nature going on along the Milwaukee River in West Bend, WI and it looks like the Great Horned Owls, that used to nest in the old West Bend Brewery, are back!
Above photo courtesy Christine Mertes.
Neighbors remember the saga of the Great Horned Owls that used to nest in the small vent hole on the side of the cream city brick building just north of Highway 33. There were yearly articles and a slew of photographers who would gather in the parking lot to document the birth and eventual flight of the owlets.
In 2020 there was the doomed adventure when the owlets took flight and landed in a nearby pine tree and then accidentally got clipped by a live electrical wire.
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Over the years, construction forced the owls to find a new home and they went a bit further south to Riverside Park in West Bend, WI… but now it appears they’re back and nesting in a very unique spot, and not very far from their old home at the brewery.
According to Christine Mertes a male and female Great Horned Owl have found a home in a flowerpot on her fourth-floor balcony.
“A wild Great Horned Owl just showed up on our balcony on March 12th and made her nest in a flowerpot! We are following her journey,” wrote Mertes on social media.
Mertes has named the mother owl River and determined the pair of owls are sitting on two eggs.
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Mertes placed a camera on the nest and captured some outstanding National-Geographic type footage of the pair during feeding and weathering the recent snowfall.
Former DNR warden Bill Mitchell has been following along and said it’s a very unique scenario. “I’ve never heard of Great Horned owls nesting in a flowerpot,” said Mitchell. “Never… and on someone’s patio.”
Mitchell said the owls seem pretty used to people, in that they’ve gravitated to a spot like this, but he said they are very safe.
“Nobody is going to be able to get to them on that balcony,” he said. “She is fairly high up and they’re pretty secure from predators as well.”
Mitchell said their feeding source is the Milwaukee River and nearby trees provide a great view of the landscape. “In one of the videos you see they found a mouse,” he said.
Mertes said on social media, the owls are attracting a huge following. “I have to tell you…work is really getting in the way of owl watching,” she wrote. “We are so excited about this.”
Currently there are three cameras on the impromptu balcony air B&B.
Mary Holleback is an educator at Riveredge Nature Center in Newburg.
“The Great Horns are the first ones to mate in Wisconsin and towards the end of the month the barred owls and screech owls will start nesting too. The Great Horns start early because it takes so long for their young to get mature enough to take off and get on their own before the end of summer. The owlets need to be self-sufficient before winter.”
Holleback said “usually the same adult pair come back to the same spot.”
“Say, last year they had a brood and if successful those young will fledge and they will disperse; they won’t go too far but the young don’t usually take the nest site from the adults,” said Holleback. “If the adults were not successful and the young died or froze to death then they usually look for another location. The whole name of the game is to reproduce and make more offspring for the next generation.”
The timeline on the owls from past nesting experience – shows them occupying a nest in early March and the owlets hatching shortly thereafter. Stay tuned!
Below is a story about the West Bend Brewery owls from 2022.
April 20, 2022 – West Bend, WI – It was January 2021 when the fate of the old West Bend Brewery was sealed as someone covered the cubby hole on the south side of the building that for years served as a nesting box for a Great Horned owl. Neighbors, who wrapped their arms around the annual owl family, mourned the loss of the experience… however….
Follow the Milwaukee River to the south and you may just find an owl family or two sitting in the treetops.
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We really have no idea if it is the same nesting pair that returned annually to the old Brewery… but it is highly possible. The mother owl has a wingspan over 6-feet; she can easily be seen from a distant parking lot.
This year there are two owlets; they just took flight earlier this week.
If you can’t find them staring down at you from above, walk around the base of the trees to see if you can discover remnants from some of their feasts. The Milwaukee River makes for great hunting territory along with open fields where they can snatch a varmint or two.
A successful relocation of the owl nests may mean a better chance at survival since there are no powerlines in the vicinity. It was May 2020 when the young owls took flight to a nearby pine tree and clipped the electrical wire with their wings. A crew from We Energies responded to a call from Bill Mitchell with the DNR. We Energies topped the trees and wrapped some insulation around the wires.
Have you found any signs of Great Horned owls in your community?
Where is it on social media? I’m not on fb. If it was on Nextdoor, that would be great!