Owls of Camas NWR

This morning after doing my Sage grouse lek counts, I went on to Camas NWR to see what I could find.  I was well paid for my time.  I saw a few new birds for the season, but I also noticed a lot of Short-eared owls flying around, chasing off the Northern Harriers when they got too close to some marsh grass areas.

 

It kept landing on a headgate for water diversion and watched me very closely.

 

Then right by the road in the grass was a brown spot with big yellow eyes - a Short-eared owlet.

 

Not too far off I saw another one.

 

 

Then another one that was exposed to the diving harriers.

 

After an attack from the harriers, it flew about 20 yards into some thick bull rushes.

 

Across the road was another adult - I believe it was the male of the pair.

 

He eventually took off and chased the harriers away from the area.

 

On the way home I stopped to check out a Great-horned owl nest and found that the eggs had hatched and now a pair of adults have three hungry chicks to feed.

 

Just a few rewards of spending time in the wilds of Idaho and enjoying the wildness of it all.

Sage Grouse and migration day

I started early this morning looking for Sage grouse leks and about froze my tail off waiting to get enough light to take pictures of America's largest grouse.  I was parked near a ridge so the first pictures were silhouettes of the grouse in the frosty air.

 

Then as the sun came up, warming both the birds and I, the males started showing off to the ladies.  But the girls stayed only a minute or two and then flew off - a little too early for any serious relationship.

 

The boys did not stay long either, so off I went to Camas NWR to see if the water was in the ponds.  The Big Pond was about a fourth covered but most of the action was in the air.  Here a Short-eared owl was encouraging a Rough-legged hawk to go to the Artic Circle where most of the others had gone.

 

Two Northern harriers decided to play tag over the Big Pond.

 

I saw my first Sandhill cranes of the year.  There were several flocks that came in.

 

 

And the Snow and Ross's geese made their grand appearance off and on throughout the morning and early afternoon.

 

Just a slight breeze - warm sun - and many of God's creatures prepared me for meeting the taxman to settle up with Uncle Sam - and he treated me fairly good.

Oh, the Wildness of Idaho in the Great Outdoors.

Owls - Hoot of a day

The beauty of being retired is that any day of the week can be a "Saturday" where I can just spend the full day "out and about."  Yesterday was such a day and I ended up photographing four species of owls and a lot of other wild things.

None of the owls were new discoveries as I knew where they were; I just had to be lucky and they needed to cooperate.  The Saw-whet owls are using the nest boxes already and I have been watching this one for about a month.  It was peeking out of the hole as I arrived early in the morning. 

 

After visiting a pair of Great-horned owls, I checked it again and it was about half way out of the nest box and still ignoring me

 

Then I walked down to the East Windrow at Market Lake and the Long-eared owls were out of their normal hiding places.  With the sun just coming through the thin clouds, they were easy to photograph.  At best count, all seven of them were still there.

 

The sizes between them are very different.  There was also a Great-horned owl in the same windrow.

 

After spending the day playing with other wildlife like elk, deer, coyotes, jackrabbits, waterfowl and even doing a few chores, I went to Camas NWR to watch the eagles and check on the Short-eared owls.  I found nine Short-ears working the grasslands around the empty ponds.  I hid in some reeds the owls were working.  This one about landed on me.

 

I was delighted to watch them display and even watched as one harvested a rodent.

 

After the sun went down, I located this beautifully colored Great-horned owl in some old dead cottonwoods.

 

I checked several areas to see if the Burrowing owls had showed up, but I was a few weeks too early.  But it was just another early morning and late evening spent with the wild creatures of Idaho.

Short-eared owls

Thursday I hit Market Lake, Mud Lake and Camas National Wildlife Refuge and saw some interesting things.  I had planned on getting to Camas to watch the eagles come into roost for the night.  I got there a little early and found four pair of Short-eared owls flirting and courting around Big Pond.  It was a sight to behold.  The light was poor as the sun was setting, but here are some of the images I captured.
They appeared curious of me and flew around for a while.

Then they started displaying.  They would fly high and then free-fall, clapping their wings under their body, making a clapping sound.  With the eight of them doing this, I was busy trying to find the one working it way toward me.

 

Finally as the sun was almost down, this one displayed right over my head.  It was moving so fast it was hard to capture, but I was pleased.

 

I finally pulled myself away from the owls and joined six people from Idaho Falls at the eagle viewing area.  We had 26 bald eagle come to roost in the large cottonwoods for the evening.

 

Another fantastic day enjoying the wildness of Idaho.

Sharptails and wind

When I got out of bed this morning at 5 there were no clouds and no wind. By the time I got to the leks the clouds had rolled in and soon after the wind began to blow. I got a few good pictures with the aid of my flash, which does not spook the grouse. But I was really never able to get enough good light to get some good pictures until I had to leave. There were 14 males and three females on the lek.
I also had Meadowlarks, sparrows, curlews, Harriers, mallards, Canadas, Short-eared owls and ravens fly over. Seven antelope came by but kept their distance.
By the time I got home to get ready to go to school, the wind was howling. TV said we had gusts of 50 mph - too strong for man, beast, birds and insects. It blew all my bird feed out of the feeders on the ground and I had goldfinches, house finches, pine siskins and Red-winged blackbirds feeding on the ground.
Two interesting photos I got were of a Northern flicker hanging flat against a tree trunk and a fly hiding from the wind in the bottom of a tulip.
A fellow teacher and friend, reported seeing Redpolls, White-crowned sparrows, Ruby-crowned kinglets, White-winged and Red crossbills in his yard this morning. I have never seen kinglets in my yard, hopefully they will make the mile journey to my yard.
If you enjoy these pictures let me know.