owls
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Superb Owl Half-Time Show
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Superb Owl Kick-off
Most of the time, you just can’t figure out what the Blue Jays are yelling about. I thought they might, just might, have an Accipiter in there. Then I heard a nuthatch calling continuously and thought, I haven’t photographed a nuthatch yet this winter.
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Superb Owl
This may be a rat claw. One of several found in this pellet. Pellets are regurgitated hair/feathers/bones/etc. that get spit up by predatory birds. More claws in this pellet, found a day earlier elsewhere. Also full of claws. Again, possibly rat. Owls tend to gulp their prey whole-hog, but I’ve seen American Kestrels and Cooper’s…
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Indigestible
Looks like feathers. Some bone fragments. These are pellets hawked up by various birds. The above three photos were all taken in rather close proximity, but under different trees. Examples in the third picture were found all bunched up like this. Too small for Great Horned, too big for Saw-Whet. Owl pellets are the most…
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Superb Owl Sunday
The Blue Jays bought me here. This was a sighting in late September. In October, I found a single Great Horned Owl feather, its down all entangled so that it flew like a flag. Imagine, at night, the silent sweep of one of these large birds while the traffic grunts and vomits a few hundred…
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Earth Day
This beat-up skull comes courtesy of a Great Horned Owl. The owl chomped this down and then spit it back up after the bird’s battery acid stomach had a go at it. I think these might be the remains of a Grey Squirrel skull. Found with plenty of grey hair smushed into the cavities. Cleaned up…
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Anniversary
For the ninth anniversary of this blog, some Great Horned Owl.January 26.February 3. (The hollering Blue Jays abated for a moment.)(But only a moment.)February 10. For three weekends, vocal Blue Jays have pointed their piecing calls to a roosting Great Horned Owl. Different trees each time. Given that 9 out of 10 times, the Blue…
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Mammal Monday
Wait, what?This gruesome sight greeted me recently not very far from where a roosting Great Horned Owl was being yelled at by Blue Jays. Suspicion isn’t evidence, but caching of prey is something these big owls do. Especially in nesting season. The male has to hunt more than usual since the female spends so much…
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Superb Owl Sunday Extra Point
Blue Jay points the way. Or, more accurately, calls “jay! jay! jay!” to the way.I heard the Jays from afar. Couldn’t see anything in the tree, so I walked underneath it to look for owl sign (whitewash or pellets) or feathers from a raptor kill. Nothing but cones and raccoon poop. Well, Jays do yell…
Backyard and Beyond 