Showing posts with label raptors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label raptors. Show all posts

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Go find a KITE!

For the second year in a row, a small community in rural Eastern Ohio has hosted "Kite Day", a special opportunity to view confirmed nesting Mississippi Kites.  Now, if you aren't a birder...

1.  I feel so bad for you.  The wonders you are missing out on...
2.  Come hang out with me.  I'll turn you onto birds....
3.  You might be thinking, "Pfft.  Whatever.  What's so special about some birds making babies in rural Eastern Ohio?"


Here's why it's so special.  As the name implies, this is a bird that is found in the southern U.S. Its breeding range  is roughly from Oklahoma east to South Carolina, into the southern states.  They winter in interior South America.  The birds we saw today are in OHIO.
Okay, so it's a big deal.

When Kite Day was advertised, Kathi got our names on the list (the nest is inside a gated community and they were gracious enough to allow a small number of birders in today).  She was good enough to drive us out to the site and it just added a fun element to what was a stellar day.  When we drive anywhere together, we are blah blah blah for hours.  Helps the time go faster.

Should we just get to the photos?  Yes, let's.

We drove in, parked, and followed the other birders.  And there was the chick, teed up in a tree, pretty as you please.
MIKI chick in tree

LIFE BIRD # 244.  And LIFE RAPTOR# 18 (not including vultures)
WHOOT.

The recently fledged chick just sat in the tree, and as one of the adults came into its line of sight, it would start to call....which made my heart melt.
Here's a recording of their call:






MIKI chick1


Here's Kathi, with her "I'm a serious birder, so it's important that I turn my ballcap backwards.  'Cause that's how I roll" pose:
DSCN0778


We also got to see Heather of the Hills!!
DSCN0789

Heather looking at MIKI


And Jim McCormac (he's behind the scope):
Kathi and Jim


We watched over and over as the adults would bolt into view and hand over a fresh cicada to the calling chick....and then got to watch the chick nom nom nom on the thing:
MIKI chick eating

MIKI chick eating 2

MIKI chick with cicada


The adults were busy, even with just one chick to feed.  Constantly hunting for cicadas and other little critters to bring in.....
Adult MIKI sil


And then I was finally looking at the right moment with my camera raised when an adult came in with food.
Check out the rufous shine in the adult's wing.  They aren't just black and gray birds....A lot of color hidden in there:
Adult MIKI bringing food

I'm a happy girl.  It's been a LONG time since I got a new raptor on my list.  And this was extra special, being able to sit and watch for so long, actually getting to "know" the birds.
Thank you, small gated community in rural Eastern Ohio, for hosting this day for us!!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Hodge-podge and a convicted sex offender at the end

Yesterday, I was on the phone with Trixie, discussing things like beading, Sarah Pahlin and sick kids. I saw a raptor-shaped flash out in the backyard. I stood up, and there was a red-shouldered hawk on the fence by the prairie:
"Trixie...there's a red-shouldered hawk in my yard."
"Omigod, really????"
RSHA by the prairie

Haven't seen too much raptor activity this summer. The appearances are cyclic.
No bands on this guy.
RSHA on Leos house

And then Trixie had to one-up me by talking about the northern harrier hanging out at her house.
Kill-joy.

Isabelle likes to bead whenever I have my beading stuff out. She made a necklace and a bracelet for two of her classmates:
Isabelle beading
I gave her the planning tray so she could see what the finished project would look like. She did alternating red and purple beads, and it took her almost an hour to string them all. It was perfect. Lorelei's more of a wide-variety jewelry designer.

While waiting for the school bus, I was bored and shooting macro shots of the street. I was pleasantly surprised at the texture hidden there:

Macro street
Each of these stones are about 1 centimeter wide. A tiny wave of rose quartz, diminutive flecks of blue. Beauty is all around us and we just have to stop and look around once in a while (I think that's a Ferris Bueller reference).

As the bus was arriving, a four-leaf clover peeked out from the weeds growing around the storm drain:
four leaf clover
I've read that scientists have isolated the gene that makes a clover grow four leaves, so finding one is not so lucky anymore. Who cares. I found it on our anniversary, so I pressed it and put it in a bag with the date. When we are old and in the Home, we can read the bag and reminisce.

We have been watching this grasshopper in the prairie for a few weeks. Always on the same plant, not too interested that we are near:
Hooper and the giant grasshopper
The biggest grasshopper in the world. See? It's as big as Hooper!

I had a great program today at a retirement village near RAPTOR. About 100 seniors, which is a nice change from cute little rugrats. I can pull out different jokes with adults.
Storm was fiery as a firecracker, as usual.
Storm purple eyes
But he's also very patriotic.

Now the bad story:
I was just telling Geoff about this nice lady I met while waiting for Isabelle's bus. Lorelei and I had both the dogs with us, and as this lady was getting out of her car, her dog got out too and did her business in their yard. Nellie is usually mildly interested in other dogs, but Hooper does his big loud YODEL and dances on his hind feet and paws the air with his front feet.
This attracted the attention of the nice lady and her daughter, so they came over. Adorable little three-year old (hearing impaired...got to brush off some of my sign language skills on her).
So I was telling Geoff this nice story, and he laid this one on me...
While doing a story about types of neighbors for one of his magazines, he came across this website (I've searched stuff like this before, but it's been years.)
Family Watch Dog.
And there's a convicted sex offender living one street away. He's 21, and while it doesn't go into gross details, it says "sexual conduct with a minor" which sounds like he was maybe dating someone underage, like a seventeen-year old? I know they specify if the victim is under the age of 13....but still.
We looked further and there are a disturbing number of sex offenders in the area (like, more than ZERO!) A few old nasty-looking crackers convicted of "illegal use of Minor in Nudity-Oriented material or performance", and a strange-looking little woman living near Lorelei's school.... convicted of RAPE.
What. The. Hell.

I've shot this otherwise nice post all to Hell and back, but there ya go.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Randomosity and a Coop lesson


A few babies are starting to learn the ropes, out on our feeders:
For the first time, I saw young downy woodpeckers following their parents to the suet and peanuts. The reason I noticed they were young was because they were begging and flapping.
Didn't get a photo.
But I did get one of a juvenile house finch, sampling the grapes:

Juv house finch
(I know it's a juvenile by the extra bold streaking, different from the adult females)
alot of red for a downy
Someone clear this up for me. This guy was at the feeders today, and while he has the "downy" coloring all over his body, his head has a whole lot of red on the top instead of the nape. It looks like a yellow-bellied sapsucker head on a downy body. Anyone want to chime in? The belly was all white, like a downy.
mutant guppy
Here's something you don't see everyday.
One of our guppies born last year was a conjoined twin. I assume two eggs stuck together, and one developed and one didn't. This one was a male, and he had an eye and dorsal fin growing from his abdomen. Well, he died yesterday, and I took the opportunity to finally get a good picture of him. I guess the "twin" grew up into his belly so much that it inhibited digestion or respiration.
Rest in peace, little mutant.

And now, a study of Cooper's hawks:
Our darling Mary posted a picture of a hawk she wasn't sure of, and I made a vow to keep her from "giving up" on raptors. I know how she feels...when I first became a birder, sparrows and raptors were a mystery. They are all differing shades of brown, and my untrained eyes glazed over whenever I saw one. Now, the sparrows are still tough sometimes (as they are to many) but I think I have a fairly good grasp on birds of prey. I better, since I am teaching the next generation about them.
(And this is for anyone who reads my blog and wants to know more about IDs. Most of my regulars don't need this, but hey.)
I've posted these before, but I don't have any new ones yet this year.


As soon as you see a bird of prey, immediately look for three things:
1. Head
2. Tail
3. Belly
99% of the time, those three parts will tell you what you are looking at.
Sometimes, you only get a quick look at two of them: The head and tail, as the bird flies away from you. But a perched bird can show you all of them.
Cooper's hawk (and I am using this one because if you feed birds, you are also feeding Coops, and their population is on the rise):
1. Dark cap on head
2. Banded white/black or gray/black tail
3. Pale belly with orange horizontal streaking
Coop at the yurt
Here you can see belly and head...
Coop looking for more sticks
Here, head and tail...
Coop head
Here, belly and head.
coopers hawk
Accipiters (Coops, sharp-shinned, etc.) have a long, slim profile. Remember: Short wings, long tail. Form and function: Bird eaters have to be fast and maneuverable, so their wings are for speed instead of soaring, and their tails act as rudders to make fast turns.
Young Coop
Juvenile Coop...no dark cap yet, and brown, vertical streaking (but their tails are pretty much like an adults).
Since there are plenty of juveniles beginning their lives outside the nest right now, we all will be getting lots of opportunities to divine what we are looking at.
Everyone say it with me:
"Head, belly, tail. Head, belly, tail..."

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Whoot!

Jackpot!
I went out to do a quick round of Kelley's Nature Preserve before picking up last minute stuff for my trip.
Not very birdy, but I perked up considerably when I heard,
"Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you allllll?"
Hot damn. A barred owl.
I chased it down and fired off the shutter fast...the owl (A big one, maybe a female) knew I was there, of course, and was fairly far away. I swear it knew just how far my zoom could go.
Not great pics, but I will not complain:

Old Man of the Forest
See why they call them "Old Men of the Forest"?
BO Too fuzzy
Too fuzzy...
BO 1
Damn you, random stick!
Oh well. Bad pictures of a "real" owl (aka not a RAPTOR owl) is better than none at all.

Other than a sinus headache, I don't think I could be in a better mood.
An owl, and tomorrow I leave for two whole days of birding, glorious birding.
Itinerary for tomorrow:
7:00 am-ish: Get up
8:00 am-10:00 am: Prepare girls for sleepovers
(Isabelle at the Swami's Yurt, Lorelei at my Mom's)
10:00 am-2:00 pm: Pack, give Lorelei over to my Mom and finalize anything that needs finalizing
2:00 pm-2:45 pm: Drive Isabelle to Swami's
3:00 pm-3:05: Yell YAHOO at the top of my lungs in my car as I begin the drive north
3:05 pm-7:00 pm-ish: Drive to Port Clinton, Ohio
7:00 pm-9:00 pm: Get pictures of sunset over Lake Erie, generally jump around and enjoy myself.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Babies, babies everywhere


Okay. That picture from the last post was a pug nose.
I was hoping for some hilarity, but either all of you are smarter than I thought, or not as funny as I thought.
:)

Three legged pug
One of the pugs at the dog park yesterday had only three legs.. a neighbor's dog got hold of it through a fence and shredded the leg, necessitating an amputation.
Call me weird, but I love dogs and cats who are missing a limb. They aren't missing it, and go on with their life and adapt to their new stride by taking it all in stride.


Lorelei and I spent some time at Lake Isabella, tossing rocks and looking for birds.
I like that particular park for its quiet atmosphere...I take my RAPTOR scheduling book and can sit and make calls without any disruption.

Throwing rocks

Lorelei on the rocks

I seriously can't wait until I go to Magee Marsh. There, the warblers come to you.
Last year, I had a black and white warbler try to step onto my camera, after I had been standing still for a few minutes, trying to get a good picture. It's one of the Top Ten birding destinations in the country.
Stoked!
Yellow rumped warbler
Here's a bad picture of an osprey, hunting up and down the Little Miami:
Osprey flying away
I could hardly understand what I was looking at, until I saw the wings. Osprey hold their wings in an "M", looking like a red tailed hawk with crooked wings.
RT on nest  hackles up
And speaking of red tailed hawks, I visited the RT nest on I-275 at the Loveland exit. I couldn't see any babies, but one of the parents was keeping an eye out.

My Mom called today to rub in the fact that she got her first hummingbird of 2007.
Later, I was able to trump that:
Male purple martin
This was Isabelle's find. We were sitting at the dinner table, and she said, "Mommy. I just saw a starling or tree swallow go into the gourd and then come back out."
I looked, and saw a dark bird with a notched tail skimming above the yard. When it landed, I caught a glimpse of a beautiful, almost-black purple glimmer.
Hot Damn! A male purple martin!
Things are going to get interesting around here. I have seen just a few tree swallows around the past few days, but no one has "claimed" the gourd yet. I have been eagerly awaiting the TRES staking their claim on this pricey real estate, so that I can stop worrying about the damn house sparrows taking over. TRES are very territorial and will fight off any bird who is dumb enough to try and steal a nesting site. I loved to watch the TRES last year dive bomb the starlings and HOSP.
So...If the martins start setting up housekeeping, I will open up the compartments on the martin house. If the TRES claim it, I will keep the compartments closed. I wish TRES would nest communally. Wouldn't that be fantastic?


Isabelle also made another find today. She was down here in my office, talking to the Dove, and she asked if she could feed the fish.
A few minutes later, I looked over and she had her cute little face pressed against the glass, and she said, "Mommy! I see baby guppies!"
Huh. I didn't even notice that one was pregnant!
So we have RT babies down on the interstate, baby guppies, baby wrens, and also some surprise babies that I will tell you about when they arrive.


And hows this for adorable and sweet:
After discovering the guppies, she said, and I quote:
"Thank you for getting me glasses, Mommy. I can see so much!"
You're welcome. And thank you, Isabelle, for being such a great kid.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

A Coop at the Yurt, dogs

Sorry to disappoint anyone, but I am all out of creative ideas for Sunday Sketches tonight.
But there was some cool raptor action at Swami's and Swamette's today!
A pair of Cooper's hawks are building a nest in one of the trees in the backyard.
And this is the biggest Coop I have ever seen! (At first, when I saw it in flight, I thought I was looking at a red-shouldered) It must be a female. The other one is much smaller.
Coop at the yurt
Look at those beautiful red eyes...
Coop picking up a stick
We watched her gather sticks and take them up to the top of one of the pine trees.
Coop looking for more sticks
I was enthralled...what a beautiful bird.
Swamette was dismayed when I told her that this pair of Coop's would be eating birds in and around her yard. She is upset that she is feeding the birds that will be eaten. I told her, "Yeah, but you are still feeding birds. They are just larger than the other ones!"
Tytus and Sydney
We met up with Kevin and Rachel (Younger-Son-Of-Swami and his girlfriend) at a nearby dog park (we took Nellie up to the Yurt with us) and they brought two of their dogs.
The beagle-mix you may remember from a previous post. (Tytus)


The girls and Sydney the boxer
The girls love dog parks...lots of new dogs to play with. This boxer was a favorite of ours. Her name was Sydney.
Flying dogs
The black Lab on the right is not Nellie. Nellie stayed by me most of the time.

Look at the movement in this picture. Dogs are too much fun.
Two men, two dogs
Two men, two dogs.
(Geoff and Kevin)
Syd and the frisbee
Sydney loved to fetch. And at times, she would bring the Frisbee back in her mouth with it tilted up in front of her face. We have no idea how she could find her way back to us!
Syd smiling
She was a big, goofy, smiley dog.
Geoff, Lorelei, Kevin and Raven
Kevin and Rachel also brought Raven, a chow-heck, I don't know what else-mix.
She is a good dog, full of energy and sweet. But some prissy dog owner got all upset when her dog and Raven got into a bit of a scuffle. Rachel leashed Raven for a few minutes, and we watched as the prissy women's little ankle-biter started another fight.
People tend to shy away from Raven, Rachel said, because they are wary of chows. People are the same way about pit bulls, and Nellie, for that matter, just because she looks like a Rott! Anyone who is scared of Nellie is an idiot.
I wish more people read my blog, because I have common sense (I swear I do!).
If you take your dog to a dog park, you have to let the dogs BE DOGS. And if YOUR dog gets testy, you have to restrain it and teach it how to act. And if a fight breaks out, for the love of God, don't freak out! Dogs feed on our energy, and they will go into defense mode of they sense that you are panicked. Dog parks would be perfect, if the owners weren't there.
We have a certain UPS driver who was attacked by a dog a long time ago. When we open the door, Nellie likes to run out and greet all delivery people (everyone else brings treats for her). Well, this driver gets all scared and presses herself up against her truck and freezes. Now, Nellie can sense that something has changed, so she starts bracing her legs and barks. And that makes the driver get more freaked, and Nellie thinks, "Oh no! Something is wrong. There is something going on that I need to be scared about. I better sound big and bad and scare off the thing that I am supposed to be scared of!" I understand that this woman was attacked by a big dog, and she is scared of them. But I get impatient with people who can't conquer their fears. I am scared of high bridges over water, but living in the Ohio river valley, I have to drive over them every day. And I do it and move on. I have been through enough in my life to know that fear has its place, but you can't let it rule your life. Fear can assist a mom to lift a car off of her child trapped under it, but living your life crippled by fear gives you only half a life.
Okay, enough of my ranting.
***
Geoff and I had a nice time last night, alone in the house with Nellie, Queen, Pandora, Buddha, Trixie, Powder, Penny, Nic, Laverne, Shirley, Echo and Lollipop. Even when we are alone, we aren't alone.
Hope everyone had a nice weekend.
Winter ends in 3 days!!!!!

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Plans

Word of the Day:
cogitate \KOJ-uh-tayt\, intransitive verb:
1. To think deeply or intently; to ponder; to meditate.
2. To think about; to ponder on; to meditate upon; to plan or plot.

Our yearly bird trip to Magee Marsh in northern Ohio is something I look forward to all year. As soon as we leave to come home, I am ready to plan for the next time. It's probably the biggest birding event in Ohio, International Migratory Bird Day, held on the second Saturday of May every year.
These are pictures from 2005.
The first thing we encountered in the parking lot outside the famed "Magee Marsh Boardwalk" was a raptor rehab presentation, given by a rehab center called Back to the Wild. Hmmm....foreshadowing, maybe?
Mona Rutger, the director of Back to the Wild, was named Hero of the Year from Animal Planet. Whoot!


P5130093
They had about 15 birds perched in and around a tent (it always seems to rain on International Migratory Bird Day).
Red-tailed hawk (gunshot wound, which resulted in the bird breaking both wings)
P5130090
Saw-Whet Owl...obvious eye injury.
P5130088
Great Horned Owl, hit by car... and juvenile golden eagle, blown out of a nest before fledging, if I remember correctly.
P5130086
Rough-legged hawk? That's the weirdest rough-legged hawk I have ever seen...Looks like a calico cat!...with obvious eye injury.
P5130085
Bald eagle with one eye.
wha dat
Look how small Lorelei was!
(She was pointing at the eagle saying, "Wa dat?"
P5130084
The GHO is almost a twin to ours...except for the pretty white eyebrows.
P5130083
Lake Erie is so vast that the girls thought they were at the ocean.
P5130070

Junior birder
One of my all-time favorite pictures...Isabelle picks up my bins to look for birds. And a lifetime of birding (I hope) begins.
Captured 2003-05-07 00052
Everywhere you look, stands a great blue heron or a great egret. They are FREAKIN' EVERYWHERE.
P5150114
This is a huge cheese store about 10 miles from the Marsh. 126 kinds of cheese. Now, I love cheese, but for the life of me I can't think of 20 kinds of cheese, much less 126!
We have never been in the store...we just take pictures of it. But this year, we are going in!
This year, it may just be Geoff and me on the trip. Swami and Swamette are thinking about keeping the girls that weekend. I think we could handle that.

And just to RUB IT IN for my fellow bloggers still gripped in the cold grasp of Winter...
It was 78 degrees here today.
NEENER. NEENER.
Trixie sings the blues
I don't know if I can even find the words for this picture. Lorelei was playing her pretty pink piano, and Trixie jumped up and listened.

And a bit of a mystery:
Gourd in pine
This gourd hasn't had any occupants since I put it up last Spring...or so I thought.
Stuff in the gourd
I peeked in today and found a nest of leaves, pine needles and sticks of this bamboo-like plant that grows around here. And there were two hollowed out areas that looked like two animals had gotten cozy in. No fur that I could see, or feathers...
Squirrels? Inquiring minds want to know.
Isabelle's sunset painting
To leave you with a warm, fuzzy feeling...
A watercolor painting by Isabelle. It's a sunset.