Young of the Year

Tags

Burrowing Owl, fledgling, Great Gray Owl, Great Horned Owl, Long-eared Owl, nesting, owls, sagebrush, Spring

It has been a busy but great spring, lots of rain and lots of rodents. The excessive amount of rodents has given plenty of food to a variety of predators including our local owls. A number of the nests I have been observing had larger clutches this year having been well fed on voles, ground squirrels, and cottontail rabbits. Great Horned Owls were the first to fledge with late April being the beginning of the exodus from the nest. This bird can be found nesting in a variety of habitats including cottonwood trees, cliffs, red-tailed hawk nests, and evergreen forests. A number of nests I had been observing this spring, fledged a group of four. It seemed I could not go anywhere without running into a family of these beautiful owls.Next to fledge was a family of Long-eared Owls which started setting on eggs by late March of this year. The adults fledged six little ones into the willows surrounding the nest sight making for difficult visuals for photographs, branches being everywhere. Still, with six young, at least one would be more visible than the others allowing for a somewhat clear photo. These small versions of the Great Horned Owl would watch cautiously as I moved around, not turning just their heads but there whole bodies in unison to my movements. Very fun to watch!

I also had the honor to witness and photograph a family of Great Gray Owls this spring. While walking to the nest sight I felt as though I needed to be very quiet and walk gently through the trees so as not to disturb this precious nursery. This large bird can be quite tame and come in very close, seemingly fearless of human presence. On several occasions the female flew silently just over my head to land on a low perch just above me to hunt. It was truly an awesome moment in my life. This behavior of being fearless was almost it’s demise in the early part of the previous century. A nest of three, they fledged in early June. One owlet was in the top of a “leaner” aspen, another on the ground, and the third still lingering in the nest when I left this family.

The last of my owls to fledge is the Burrowing Owl with nine young still in the natal burrow. These young are quite comical and have funny antics as they scurry around the top of the burrow awaiting dinner to be presented to them via mom or dad. They are eating a number of voles with an occasional bird brought in by the adults. Typically the male has been the hunter while the female stays close to the burrow. A transfer of the vole is then made from the male to the female with the female delivering and feeding the young. A sudden call of intruder can be made at any time by either adult which will send the little ones scurrying down the hole into the safety zone. These birds are little gems of our sagebrush areas.

There are numerous owls, adult and juvenile, in this place I call home. Summer starts tomorrow, I hope to continue to photograph a few of these owls as they mature into great hunters of this over-abundance of rodents!

International Migratory Bird Day

Tags

birding, birds, International Migratory Bird Day, Killdeer, snow, Snowing, Spring

In honor of International Migratory Bird Day, this year on May 9, I decided to spend the entire day birding. I was not going for a big day, just spending the day outside watching birds. The weather, cool and very overcast, was not the best for birding. It had been raining several days prior to the day thus the “gravel” (dirt) roads were already somewhat messy. I decided to stick to driving on pavement and hiking several known areas. By afternoon the sky opened up and snow started to fall, numerous birds had stalled out from their spring migration. The water birds were just fine but when I entered the sage brush habitat all seemed to be quiet. I captured this lone Killdeer in a pasture, standing in the snow, I am sure there was another close by sitting on eggs. All in all it was a great day to be out: 77 species and 1761 birds recorded.

Chukars and Meadowlarks

Tags

Antelope Island, birding, birds, Chukar, Courting, Spring, Western Meadowlark

I recently spent a night camping on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake of Utah. The weather had been hovering around 70 degrees which was warm by March standards. It was very pleasant.  I had high hopes of catching a few Chukars courting in the rocks.  They did not fail me and were quite the posers! This is a colorful non-native bird like the Ring-necked Pheasant. As with most members of the Phasianidae Family (Upland Game Birds) they put on quite the display for courting. Standing on top of a high perch, typically a rock in this area, they would cackle and then perform a crowing call for the females.  One could tell if a female was close as the crowing and cackling would become much more intense especially if there were two males vying for her attention.  The male would come down off of the rock and follow the female, moving very quickly, and then finding another display perch.  It was hard to predict where they would move to as Chukars can move quickly on the ground. It is an awesome photo event! Along with the Chukars there were a number of birds visible on the island with numerous spring migrants having returned and in the process of claiming their territories. One of which was the Western Meadowlark, very prevalent along the roadways. This bird has always been elusive to my camera; flying away with just the thought of picking up the camera for a photo. I was fortunate to grab a few shots using my vehicle as a blind. The birds were singing on a variety of perches consisting of bushes, rocks, and signposts. Obviously used to a fair amount of traffic they were not nearly as wary of my camera as I had expected. It was a delight to hear them belt out their songs so close. I typically think of the Meadowlark as being a ventriloquist, making this bird sometimes difficult to find. At Antelope Island, with the shorter distances in which they tolerated me, it was very obvious as to the perch the song was coming from. A definite sign of the arrival of Spring!