Barred Owls Return

Last year in May, a Barred Owl family was featured in this blog. On a foggy April morning this year, my wife and I returned to the woods and she spotted a lone Barred Owl quietly perched in a tree.

I swear I heard the owl say, "Oh, no! It's the paparazzi from last year." For the next six weeks I made frequent visits expecting to see another owl family in one of the many trees or at least see more than this one owl.

Each time I arrived, the owl seemed uninterested in my presence, although I guarantee it watched me closely and was ready to bolt if necessary.

Every so often, the owl closed its eyes, and I thought it was dozing off in a condescending gesture. It was very insulting. I wanted the owl to fly so that I could get a more exciting photo, but it refused to cooperate.

Then, one day after sitting in my car for about 45 minutes, I saw the owl stare intently in my direction, black eyes wide open, and I thought, "Finally, the owl was fascinated by me!"

Wrong again.

Suddenly, in a quiet burst of energy, it shot from its perch and came directly toward my car, and I realized then that Barred Owls hate Toyotas!

It swooped over the hood of my car and attacked something in the brush just beyond where I was parked. I jumped out of the car hoping to get a "kill shot" but the owl reacted quickly and flew up and away to a nearby tree, a possible photo obscured by the many small branches.

I had given up hope that I would see a second owl, but then a few days later I spotted this owl, a more mature looking, handsome creature, perched in a tree located above a nearby pond.

So now I knew that the two owls were probably a nesting pair and there might be a few owlets that will make an appearance soon. I'll keep watching...I'm retired.

Red-tailed Hawk

You might have noticed an increased number of Red-Tailed Hawks  in your area lately. I certainly have, and I've taken advantage of their presence by subjecting them to what amounts to an invasion of their privacy.

The Red-Tailed Hawk is a raptor of a size between a crow and a goose. It weighs an average of 2 1/2 lbs. and has a wingspan of about four feet.

It has the capability of attacking and killing small pets weighing 5 lbs., so keep your dog, Fluffy, close at all times.

Trivia question for those of you who are MENSA members: "Why is the hawk called a Red-Tailed Hawk?"

      The hawk's talons have a gripping power of 200 PSI (pounds per square inch) and the talons are always on-duty, i.e., it has to relax its grip in order to open the claws, whereas humans have to tighten their grip in order to make a fist.

Note the three talons in front and one in rear. The rear talon is longer than the others and is used to pierce the prey and puncture organs.
  

The Red-Tailed Hawks seem to be everywhere in our area this season, and they sometimes include nesting pairs as shown in the photo at left, taken on Wauwatosa Road in Mequon.

          This photo speaks for itself.


















The next few images relate the story of an (apparently) juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk who hunted Easter weekend at our condo area. I sat in my car taking photos the entire weekend, taking advantage of the hawk's daily appearance near our retention ponds.

It looked to me like it was a young hawk, judging from its size and markings, but as you will see it didn't lack courage.

One morning, a noticeably larger hawk (possibility a parent) confronted our hero. Notice the difference in amount of markings on its chest.

Displaying its size, the intruder tried intimidation to no avail.

The larger hawk departed with a flourish, leaving our hero with an inflated opinion of its own power.

The next day, I watched the hawk fly quickly to our pond and attack something it spied along the bank. It surprised me because I didn't think Red-Tailed Hawks typically dove into water like eagles or ospreys.

Look closely and you'll see a black tail rise out of the water to the left of the hawk. The hawk struggled with this prey and my best guess was that it was a muskrat that lives in our pond.

In this photo, you'll see a dark object that seemed to be part of the prey and it's obvious that maybe our hero chose a lunch that refused to go quietly.

With bugles blaring to announce the arrival of the pond cavalry, our resident Canada Goose, Groucho, attacked the hawk, mistakenly assuming it was a threat to Gertie, the female goose sitting on its nest at the opposite end of the pond.

This signaled the end of the struggle for the hawk as it slowly made its way to the safety of the dry land.

Once it was on land, I noticed the blood on the right foot of our hunter. It walked around the area and sat for a while before realizing that it just wasn't his day.

The blood was still visible on the hawk's foot but didn't seem to hinder its ability to fly.

Our hero flew immediately to the top of a nearby fir tree and it was comforting to see that it seemed to be in fairly good shape. I wondered if the muskrat had bitten the foot of the hawk and hoped that the damage was minimal.

Epilogue: A week after this incident I spotted what I believe to be our hawk perched in a nearby tree and when he few away there was no evidence of any physical impairment. 

Florida birds, 2018.

We recently spent a week visiting friends in Florida at Ft. Myers and Delray Beach. The following photos were taken at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary (Naples), Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge (Boynton Beach), and Green Cay Wetlands, (Boynton Beach).

All three sites have boardwalks that traverse swamps, marshes or wetlands where the birds are used to being around people and, as you will see, appear to be posing for pictures.

The Great Egret, also called White Heron, is ubiquitous in Florida and often appears in Wisconsin at Horicon Marsh during the migration period.

The Egret has a huge wing span and is beautiful in flight.

(Right) The Wood Stork is the only stork breeding in the United States. Standing erect, it's quite ugly...bald and unpleasant...but is graceful in flight.

                                         

                                           Black and White version.

The Red Shouldered Hawk has a call that sounds a lot like a Blue Jay. It's also referred to as a Soaring Hawk.



I call this photo "Let Us Prey."

 The Red Shouldered Hawk in flight, taken at the Green Cay Wetlands.

                                           A Great Blue Heron nabs a Garfish.

   


The word Anhinga comes from the Brazilian Tupi language and means Devil Bird or Snake Bird. They're water birds, diving under water and spearing their prey, but they must dry their wings often.

They often swim with only their necks held above water, hence the "Snake Bird" name.

Anhinga drying its wings.

                                  A Pied Grebe chick, shown here only because it's cute.

                                        

                                          A Water Moccasin, the "un-cute."

I think this is a Tricolored Heron but could be mistaken. It was close enough to pet. No, I didn't!

I watched this Roseate Spoonbill fly overhead and prepared for taking a lot of photos of it landing.

The Roseate is one of the most unique water birds, using it's spoon-shaped bill to sift through the bottom layer looking for bugs, fish, crawfish or the keys it lost last summer

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                                                        Traffic jam at the pond.

Trumpeter Swans, et al.

It's been months since I posted photos on this blog. During that time, I've been to the Horicon Marsh near Waupun, Wisconsin, the Thiensville, Wisconsin dam, a bridge in Grafton, and Villa Grove Park in Mequon. With the exception of the pics from Horicon, the rest were taken in Mequon, Thiensville and Grafton.

 On Route 49 in the area that has the Horicon Marsh on both sides of the road, I saw this group of Trumpeter Swans and their five Cygnets some distance away. To my great surprise, they swam toward me as though they expected me to feed them. The Cob and Pen casually climbed unto the grassy area adjacent to the road while their Cygnets swam nearby, testing their wings for the flight that was in their near future.

On another day cruising Rte. 49, I saw this gathering of Egrets and White Pelicans feeding together in great numbers, something new to me, and I snapped as many photos that the weather conditions and distance allowed.

These shots made great card covers!

 Back at Villa Grove Park one very early morning I took what I thought at first would be very boring shots of a lone Blue Heron fishing in the Milwaukee River. A little bit of editing produced more dramatic results.

This young Blue Heron below was standing quietly (and fearlessly) next to the Grafton bridge near the Art Mill shops amidst the rushing water when I took this shot as he jumped to a safer perch:

The Thiensville dam area located adjacent to the Thiensville Police Station has been a great source of subject matter for me. All of the following photos were taken there within the last couple of months:

The above photo is of the path that runs from the parking area of the dam to the small pond at Shully's Catering.

A Cedar Waxwing took time off from hunting the insects on the river. The birds gather in great numbers in the morning for their feeding.

The flowers along the path are unbelievable this time of year.

There are two Kingfisher birds that claim the area near the dam and I was lucky to get these shots of one diving for breakfast. They are extremely fast (and shy) and the water shot below is all I could get once it made impact.

But I managed to capture its flight to the opposite side of the river to finish breakfast.

In almost the same spot of the river, I was startled to see this Osprey fly to a tree close by and perch for a short time before flying away for more hunting. And then, a second Osprey flew quickly by me before I could get a shot. It's possible they were parent and fledgling migrating or just vacationing.

The next day, I caught a glimpse of possibly the same Osprey hovering high above the river as he considered his chance of catching a fish below.









This is a great time to get out and enjoy the many gifts of nature so close to where we live. Take a seat at one of the areas above and just be patient. You will be rewarded!