Owl Attack

Friday afternoon I ran out to see if I could find some Long-eared owls at Market Lake.  I found some pellets, but no owls.  I was able to locate three Great-horned owls and enjoyed working them.  The male owl decided I had gotten close enough.  Here he gives me a warning by snapping his beak.

I back up a few paces continuing to take pictures - it was not enough.

Swooping down he almost gets my hat before he pulls up on his attack.  I gave him plenty of room the rest of the day.

Just another hair-raising experience in the Wilds of Idaho.

I hope all of you had a Merry and safe Christmas and are looking forward to the new year.

SkyWatch Friday - Stormy sunrise

Storms, storms and more storms continue to roll in.  Sometimes the sun gets a chance to peek through the cloud either in the morning or evening.  Tuesday morning as I was leaving for school, we had a beautiful sunrise to celebrate another snow/rain storm moving in.  This was taken from my back steps.

Half way to school I captured this scene.

A great way to start another wild day in Idaho.

See other sky pictures at http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Wildlife at Howe

On my way home from fishing Mackey Reservoir ( see http://billschiessfishing.blogspot.com/ for that story) I spent about 30 minutes looking at the raptors and other wildlife near Howe, Idaho.

Several people feel Howe may support the largest number of raptors during the winter in the state of Idaho or even the nation.  In 30 minutes I counted 78 hawks and 12 eagles.  The most numerous were the Roughlegged hawk that have just migrated from the Artic Circle.  Here is a beautiful one working a hay field.

Golden eagles were perched on hay stacks and sprinkler lines while Bald eagles were feeding on a few sheep and antelope carcusses around the area.

Herds of antelope filled  the fields along the road.  I estimate there were about 1000 pronghorns in a nine mile stretch.

A great way to end another wild day in Idaho.

Backyard birds

With a foot of snow on the gound, the songbirds left around my yard is always looking for food.  Today with the warmer weather, they were still emptying my feeders.

Black-capped chickadees are very numberous.  Here one leaves its perch to attack the sunflower seeds.

The niger seed sack was a battleground for the American Goldfinch.

Here a Housefinch tries to crack a captured sunflower seed.

Just another wild day in Idaho.

SkyWatch Friday - Winter sunset

Storm after storm after storm has rolled through Idaho in the last 10 days.  But several evening had a little clearing - enough to harvest some beautiful sunsets.  This was one of them taken from my back yard near Rexburg, with a foot of snow on the ground.

The end of another wild day in Idaho.