“Bird Call” columnist Jennifer Mulson writes of her twilight adventures to spot great horned owls.

By day, I’m a journalist. And by night, I hunt owls.

And by hunt, I mean intentionally head out at twilight to score a sighting of a gorgeous creature, not to claim them with my bow and arrow. I’m no Van Helsing.

Mostly what I find in my journeys are great horned owls, though there was a spectacular sighting of a ghost-faced barn owl several years ago at Fountain Creek Nature Center, identifiable thanks to its distinctive scream.

Great horned owls are the most numerous and common owl in our parts, said Tyler Stuart, a board member for Aiken Audubon, the Pikes Peak area chapter of the National Audubon Society that encourages the love, study and conservation of birds in the Pikes Peak region. In El Paso County it counts as one of our 10 regularly occurring owls, including the Western screech-owl, barn owl, Northern pygmy-owl, long-eared owl and Northern saw-whet owl.

For me, this year has been rich with great horned owl sightings. There was the mated pair whose hoots I followed off the main

trail and into a wooded area at the aforementioned nature center, where I came human face to owl face as she sat on a low branch. We stared each other down before she took a short flight to a nearby tree holding a giant nest. Her male partner (female raptors and owls are larger) sat about 20 feet away.

Great horned owls never build their own nest, says Stuart. They use nests built by other birds or nestle into ledges on cliffs.

Because of the time of year I’d spotted the handsome couple (February-ish), I wondered if A) there were eggs in the nest, and B) if the answer to A was yes, would mama feel threatened and dive bomb me?

Right now, in late fall, owls are starting to pair up and call to each other to establish territories, Stuart says.

By February and March they’re incubating eggs in their nests, with owlets making an appearance a month or so later, usually around April. And yes, they might attack a human they saw as a threat, Stuart says, much the way a mama bear would protect her young.

Seven weeks after hatching, young owls are capable of short flights, though the entire nesting period is three months. They live a lot longer at home with their parents than smaller songbirds, which have a shorter incubation and nesting period. It simply takes longer to grow a bigger-bodied owl, Stuart says.

Around September, I once again took a sunset stroll at the nature center and lucked upon another great horned owl, this time hanging out solo and silent in a bush. Yes, owls reside in other areas of town. I’m just prone to my tried and true hunting grounds. Stuart heard hooting recently in Charmaine Nymann Community Garden at Bear Creek Regional Park.

Great horned owls can be found anywhere, minus dense forests. They’ll stalk your neighborhood, using telephone poles and streetlights as perches, hoping to score dinner, which can absolutely include your cat or small dog.

“I’ve heard stories of great horned nest monitors finding dozens of collars in nests,” Stuart said.

“They like to hunt in open areas. They’re so widespread. They’ll use anything from Arctic tundra to deserts to woodlands. They’re such generalists. Very adaptable.”

My last sighting came shortly after the brutal time change last month, when I got caught in Monument Valley Park after the sun set — not my most favorite place to be by myself after dark. But as I jogged by the dry pond bed north of the Horticultural Art Society Demonstration Garden, I looked toward the mountains and there he was, sitting on a bare branch and perfectly silhouette against the midnight blue of the darkening sky. He took my breath away. They all do.

But perhaps I am one of few in my love affair with the great horned bird.

“Among birders they tend to be kind of overlooked or underappreciated because they’re common,” Stuart said.

“It’s amazing how they can nest in the crook of a cottonwood tree or in the red rock cliffs of any formations we have around here or transmission poles or even abandoned buildings. The variety of places they can nest and inhabit is impressive. It’s a treat we get to see them anywhere we are.”