The pair of great horned owls who have unwittingly become stars on a Hilton Head webcam with their newly hatched owlets now have names: Bayley and Joshua.
The Hilton Head Island Land Trust, which manages the Raptor Cam mounted in a tree near the nest, announced the names Thursday night.
As with 2021 residents of the nest, a pair of bald eagles named Harriet and Mitch , and two ospreys who called the nest home in 2023 and were given the monikers Charles and Charlotte , the great horned owls were named for significant figures in Hilton Head’s history. Over the years, the Raptor Cam has drawn more than 1.3 million views from all over the world.
The female owl is named in honor of John Bayley of Ballinclough, County Tipperary, Ireland, according to a news release from the Land Trust. In 1698, Bayley was granted a 48,000-acre barony which included Hilton Head. This land remained in possession of the Bayley family until roughly 1722 when it was divided into parcels, with many of the boundaries remaining recognizable today.