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.

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.

Golden eagle, elk and Snowshoe

After the flu and a trip slowed me up for a few days, I went chasing the wildness of Idaho for a couple of mornings.  With a snow/rain mix the opportunities of good pictures were dim.  But the experiences are more important than great pictures.  I had a great time working the wildlife of Camas one more time.

A Downy woodpecker  worked some scrub willows near three Great-horned owls.

 

The Great-horned owls were always hiding from me, peeking out through all the branches.

 

It took me a while to find the elk, but after I worked as close as I could, I watched them until two bulls started fighting.

 

There were 47 bulls in the herd and they finally located me when the breeze changed and my smell got to them.

 

As I was leaving the elk, a Snowshoe hare flushed out of some sage.

 

On the way home, I captured this Golden eagle perched on the power pole looking for a hapless rodent along a desert road.

 

Whether it is sunny, cloudy or even stormy weather, you have to get out is the wilderness to enjoy the wilds - even in Idaho.

Retirement

Today was my first day of retirement after 29 years of teaching high school, coaching and other great fun activities.  So I decided to spend it out in the wilds of Idaho.  So I headed for one of my favorite places: Camas National Wildlife Refuge.  There I located a lot of wild things.

Four antlerless White-tailed deer.

 

A golden eagle.

 

A buck White-tailed deer.

 

Four different Great-horned owls.

 

Also I saw four Bald eagles, pheasants, four bull elk, cottontail rabbits,  Red-winged blackbirds, horned larks and the newly arrived Rough-legged hawks.

 

I hope all of you had a lovely Thanksgiving.

Valentine owls - GBBC

For the last two days I have been enjoying the Great Backyard Bird Count even though we are having a lot of rain and fog on top of two feet of snow.  It won't last long with all this warm weather.

Here is my favorite picture of the two days.  I found these two Great Horned owls celebrating Valentine's Day the day after.  Or maybe it is a real relationship as it is time for them to pair up and start nesting.

The Deer Parks WMA west of Rexburg now has about 500 trumpeter swan, 400 Canada geese and 400 mallards working the stubble field and starting on the corn patch as they are migrating in.

Even though it is still frozen over, Market Lake WMA has been invaded by waxwings.  Here is a lone Bohemian waxwing joining a flock of Cedar waxwings there.  They are feeding off the Russian olives.

At the Teton River bottoms and Henrys Fork of the Snake River, I am still finding the rare Great Gray owls.  They will soon start moving back up the the mountains to nest and raise their young.  My 2014 Bucket List includes to find a Great Gray owl nest this spring.

Camas NWR is the roosting place for about 40 bald eagles and here are two that are working the calving and lambing operations within a few miles of the refuge.

Just another couple of days in the wilds of Idaho.  Have a great day.

Great Saturday

Had a great Saturday chasing birds all over Southeastern Idaho.  First I went to the upper area of the Moody area looking for sharp-tail grouse.  I was able to find a lek of seven, one male and six females.

In the early morning sun, a Western Meadowlark was singing its lungs out.

At Market Lake WMA, the Great-horned owl has hatched the chicks, but hides them under her wings when we come around.

A Great Blue heron leaves as I pull up to watch him fish.

 

An American Avocet flies over and is just one of about a hundred working the shallows at Market Lake.

On the way home, I stopped by the Texas Slough and found large numbers of Willets and Greater Yellow-legs.  Here a pair of each compete for hidden food.

And finally my first Osprey of the season.  The male was helping the female remodel and spring clean their house.

A great way to spend another Wild Day in Idaho.

First Snow Geese of the year

Saturday was sunny and calm, so I left early looking for new arrivals from the bird kingdom.  I was not disappointed.  In a shallow pond I saw my first sandhill cranes of the season before the sun came up in the rising mist on the cold morning a Camas National Wildlife Refuge.

At Big Pond a white-tailed deer ran through the shallow pond, but it was ignored by the few waterfowl there.  The deer was one of 31 I saw on the refuge.

The male Great-horned owl was enjoying the warm sun as I finished my 3 hour tour/hike at Camas.

On my quest to try to locate some snow geese, I passed a cattle feedyard where calves were being born.  Seven Bald and one Golden eagles were cleaning up the after-birth from the recent births.

At Mud Lake I could hear the Snows long before I could see them.  They were dropping out of the sky thousands of feet in the air and joining their migrating compatriots.

I sat on the edge of the ice covered in the bright sun watching the waves of geese fly in.  Here a lone Great White-fronted goose leads the formation of some snows.

After two hours of watching the action of Mud Lake, I left.  As I got back to the truck I heard the whole flock of 4000 to 5000 take off.  The cloud you see is one of geese as they fly out to eat in the area fields.

Just another wild day in Idaho.

Busy Saturday

I wanted to do some birding Saturday, but I was not able to do any serious until 11:30 and I headed for Market Lake Wildlife Management area. 
Early it was all raptors like this Prairie Falcon.

There were plenty of starlings for the falcons, kestrels, and shrikes for lunch and dinner.

I finally located another nesting Great-horned owl nest to make four that I have found so far.

This "big daddy" did not feel up to attacking me as he has twice before.

And spring is in the air as these two Canada geese are flirting and showing off for each other.

A great way to finish the day was watching three Golden Eagles playing tag high over head and then locating and photographing a flock of Common Red Polls (later this week in my blog, madisonbirds) after a successful fishing trip.

A great day in the wilds of Idaho.