The Backyard Birdman

Turtle Bay Eaglets photo by Greg Barnette

Larger of Two Eaglets Starts Flying

Young expected to stay near Hwy. 44 nest as they learn to hunt

Story by Dylan Darling

One of the Turtle Bay eaglets has been testing its wings, say the scientists monitoring the pair of young birds, which have grown up in what was a controversial nest.

“At this point, everything seems normal,” said Tom Balkow, senior environmental planner in the state Department of Transportation’s Redding office. “And it sounds like they will be ready to get out of the area soon.”

Scientists saw what they think is the older and larger of the two 12- to 13-week-old eaglets fly from the nest Thursday and it didn’t return before nightfall, he said. It was spotted again Friday morning before another flight from the nest.

“Sounds like he is getting up and around,” Balkow said.

Friday afternoon, the pair of eaglets were in the nest, both spreading their wings, but not taking off.   You can read the rest of the article here:

http://www.redding.com:80/news/2008/jun/14/larger-of-2-eaglets-starts-flying/

Burrowing Owl with Sunset In Its Eyes photo by David Roach

 I was very fortunate and extremely pleased to be invited to spend a day with my friend Steve on a 16,000 acre cattle ranch in Central California where he is in charge of monitoring over 400 nestboxes.  That’s right, I said over 400 nestboxes.  And that is only on the ranch I visited that day.  Steve (with a little help from his friends) monitors nearly 900 nestboxes of different bird species in several locations.

I will be posting more stories of my trip with Steve coming up but I really wanted to share my Burrowing Owl story with you today.  When Brigitte and I moved to northern California back in 1980, we were amazed at the abundant wildlife and beauty of this area.  One of our first observations was the abundance and variety of birds we were seeing everyday.  This is the reason I began building bird houses and putting them up all over our new property.

One of the many new birds we would see all the time was the Burrowing Owl.  They would be standing in the middle of the road when we came home from town at night.  I remember the first time we saw this little owl, just standing there, in the middle of our gravel road.  He just stood there for quite a long time.  We studied him so we could get home and look him up in our field guide.  We had no idea what kind of owl it could be with those long legs, just standing there.

Burrowing Owl Standing Guard photo by David Roach

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Osprey Portrait all photos by Rick

There is a long recorded history of eagles pirating fish from ospreys. A naturalist from England by the name of Mark Catesby first reported this pirating phenomenon back in 1731. Although there is a question as to how common this practice is, it is an incredible sight to see. Rick, a fellow bird lover from the Bird Forum shot a superb series of photos of just such an event. I hope you like them.

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Red-tailed Hawk at lunch in downtown San Francisco

photo series by Glenn Nevill

I discovered this unbelievable story in the Yahoo group of “Raptor Watch” and just had to post it here. This is a photo of a Red-tailed Hawk having its lunch on a downtown sidewalk in San Francisco, California. As you can see from this photo there are several people standing around looking on, not really knowing what to do or what to think about this event.

You can see this entire photo series here: Hawk Lunch

I think this photo series deserves a warning that some of the photos are graphic so, for those of you who may be squeemish about this sort of thing, you have been warned. Just remember, raptors are birds of prey and they are part of the food chain. Most raptors feed on birds, small mammals, reptiles and insects. This is a normal process of nature.

You can also see some super raptor photos at Glenn’s page here:

Raptor Photos

He has some incredible photos of Peregrine Falcons that you have to see to believe! For your convenience, I have listed Glenn’s page in the blogroll also.

Crow Attacking Red-tailed Hawk photos by Cleve Nash

Back on October 15th this year I wrote a post titled “Why are birds of prey harassed or mobbed”. You can read it here: Birds of Prey Harassed. Well, I recently came upon a photo story of a Red-tailed Hawk being attacked by a crow and I wanted to share these great photos by Cleve Nash. (more…)

Ferruginous Hawk (Buteo regalis) photos by Mary Claypool

What in incredible way to bring in the new year!  Our local Wintu Audubon Society chapter had a couple of excellent Christmas Bird Counts to end the 2007 season!  The last count in our area was done on December 29th with a total of 126 species counted.

The following day was gorgeous and the birds were all out searching for food after several days of bad weather.  One of the incredible birds I was able to see the last Sunday of the year was the beautiful Ferruginous Hawk. (more…)

Northern Harrier Hawk (female) photo by Walter Ammann

Passing an open field on my way into town last week I saw a hawk alternately flapping its wings then soaring very close to the ground.  As soon as I saw its white rump I knew it was a Northern Harrier Hawk.  The white rump and owl-like facial disk is distinctive in all ages and both sexes of this bird.

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Golden Eagle juvenile photo by Hans Nydahl

I was driving home this afternoon in northern California and saw a large bird soaring fairly low over a very large grassy field off the road.  I thought at first it was a Turkey Vulture, as they are abundant in our area, but I noticed it had a definite white tail with a wide black band.  I had to pull off the side of the road and watch it for awhile to make sure I could identify it once I got home. (more…)