The weather has been unseasonably warm lately so it was a balmy 32 degrees on the island yesterday.  We had a picnic on Buffalo Point and then hiked up to the top.  The views from the picnic area were amazing.

You could also see six buffalo down below.  At first I thought they had tufts of fur sticking up but then I saw the tufts fly off.  Blackbirds!

We also took a trip to the buffalo corral where the owls nest and two were there.  The Great-horned Owl on the left is napping while the one on the right is keeping watch.

So happy New Year everyone.  In a lot of ways 2011 was a very hard year because of all the losses, and not a day goes by that I don’t still think about Audrey.  But it was a great year in other ways and 2012 will be amazing.  There are so many great things coming up that I can’t wait to experience.  Everyone stay healthy…please?

The picture above is from the Oconee River Greenway in Milledgeville, GA.  That man in the picture is awesome because he was wading in the middle of the river to pickup trash.  I love that!  Jon and I went to a place in South Carolina that was overall very clean but there were still places where you could find styrofoam containers and plastic bottles, especially in the water.  If we go back there next year I want to bring trash cans and boots for wading in the water to pick up all the junk.

The area was designed as a stream on one side and walkways on the other side in the middle of forest.  The forest was quite lush and filled with birds.  The most exciting bird was the Barred Owl.  There were two Barred Owls hooting at each other so my step-father was able to find one of them in the forest.

I had the hardest time seeing him because his coloring blended so well with the leaves.

Some people call them hoot owls because of the noise they frequently make.  It was so cool to see him out during the day since many owls are nocturnal.  And as a final interesting factoid, Barred Owls frequently use Pileated Woodpecker nests for their nests.

Mom was watching from nearby.

It was a great opportunity to see her legs.  First off, she’s wearing a lovely set of pants.  Second, check out those serious claws.  She could take out a lot of animals with those feet.

A few months later we went back and the babies had fledged.  You can still see the white fuzz around their faces.

Last weekend at Farmington Bay I came across another owl.  I’m not sure if this is the same as the baby I saw during the summer or the parent, but I would guess it’s one of the ones I saw law summer since he flew down from the same tree.

I’ve never gotten such a great unobstructed view of an owl before.

And checkout the gorgeous coloring on his back.

It helps that I took the picture much later in the day than usual.  At three p.m. the light is more golden and soft.

You’re supposed to go as early as possible in the morning to get the highest number of birds, but three p.m. was best for birds this time.  I’ll write about the ducks later – there are a ridiculous number of ducks out in the afternoon.

During that trip we also saw buffalo, a porcupine, antelope and a coyote.  Jon took the most awesome picture of the coyote passing in front of an antelope.

This was one of those trips where you need a guide because the Burrowing Owl nests on the ground and it’s pretty hard to figure out which bush contains owls.  This picture below includes a man-made nest for the owl.  That is why the green is extra bright.

And the natural ones are even harder to find.

Can you see the owl in the center of the fake bush?  The guide took us right up to the nesting site.  I was a bit uncomfortable with her letting a big group of us come and disturb the nesting site but I wasn’t so opposed that I didn’t go along with the rest of the group.  It meant that I got some great close-ups of the owl.

The owl was pretty agitated that we were disturbing the nest site.  She bobbed up and down.

The nesting site was also very interesting.  Here’s the box.

The guide took apart one of the pellets to show us that the Burrowing Owl eats small birds.

I don’t want to bore you with the Great-horned Owls since I already posted about them recently.  So I’ll show you the Barn Owls.  The babies were in a box.

You could make out at least two babies inside.

You can see his facial disc because the feathers haven’t grown in yet.  The babies were housed under the same structure as Great-horned Owl babies.  Since Great-horned Owls are larger than Barn Owls, a parent was hiding inside a trailer.

When Jon’s parents came for a visit, we took them to Antelope Island.  The Barn Owls were in the same trailer and the babies were all grown up!

It’s funny, both times we visited this area there was a hare hanging out under the same structure.  I don’t know how he managed to survive around so many owls.  Maybe they don’t try to kill things as large as a hare?

When I hear a commotion in one tree.  So I look more closely in the tree and I see this:

BABY OWL!  Baby owl, BABY OWL!!!  He flew to a different tree and I followed to get a better picture.

He was pretty fearless.  He stared at me as I walked closer and closer.

Mom (dad?) was on another branch in the same tree watching me very closely.

The blackbirds, robins and sparrows kept trying to mob the baby.  They did not want the owls in their nesting territory.

This is the first time that I’ve found an owl on my own and I found the baby no less!  I’m starting to feel like less of a novice and more of a moderately skilled birder.  I know all the common birds, I’m getting better recognizing bird songs and I can find birds and their nests.  Since this is purely a hobby, I’m not pushing myself to be the best.  Competition takes the fun out of birding.  But it’s still nice to feel that I’m getting competent at birding.

photo by Jon

Would you ever have thought an owl was in that tree?  Check out the top of the lighter straight stick in the middle.  When you zoom in, it looks like this:

Long-eared Owls are very cool.  The ear tufts are just feathers – they have no bone structure.  In addition, their ear openings are asymmetrical, which is advantageous in better assessing the direction of things such as mice.  They can also move their facial discs to change the shape of the ear opening.  That’s right – they have muscles on their face that will shift to improve their hearing.  You can see the shape of the facial disc below:

photo by Jon

The pictures above were of the male.  The female was busy sitting on eggs in the nest.  Owls don’t make their own nests and this owl pair was using a magpie nest.  You can’t really make out anything more than the tail and a wing of the female in this picture.

Stay tuned for more owl pictures in the upcoming weeks!

There’s plant life, there are White-Tailed Prairie Dogs…by the way if you want to read some fantastic blogs on prairie dogs, check out Julie Zickefoose’s articles.  She’s completely in love with Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs.

Aren’t they adorable?  They would come out of their holes to watch us drive by.  I was most impressed by their ability to avoid cars.  They only crossed the road when there was plenty of time.  Unlike squirrels, ahem.

So Saturday morning we drive onto the ranch and stop at a barn.  Two minutes into the birding trip, we stop at this barn where Bill saw an owl.  We peek through the window and see the outline of an owl in the darkness.  Bill goes to the side and opens the door, which causes the owl to fly to the window and bam:

Great-Horned Owl.  And then he looked at us.

Look at those ear tufts!  Here’s a view of the back of his head.

This was an excellent start to the birding trip and it got better from there.

With regard to tethering, the only birds who are tethered full-time are those who need to be managed in that way due to physical limitations. Our long-eared owl (who is congenitally blind) and Swainson’s hawk (who was hit by a car, now missing 90% of a wing), for example, are not ever left untethered since both birds could injure themselves seriously if left unattended. However, the majority of the raptor collection are only tethered to perches for a maximum of 4-6 hours, spent on the lawn at the center of the exhibit. While there is always the possibility for a startled bird to attempt to fly, as is their instinct, soft leather bracelets and bungee cord tethers were selected for the birds, so as to minimize impact on their legs. At night, each bird moves to a designated secure shelter located at the rear of the building, where they are “free lofted,” untethered, for approximately 18-20 hours out of each day.

I believe this is the long-eared owl:

One of their volunteers told us that this guy has suffered neurological damage after contracting West Nile Virus:

I’m glad that they’re not out for longer than 6 hours. They also noted that volunteers are trained to watch the birds and notify the staff if a bird becomes agitated. Furthermore: