Rare Treat To See This Wise Bird While Placing Swarm Traps This Evening

[blueblood]

While placing two swarm traps on a property about 10 minutes from my home where I had lots of bee activity last season, I was treated with viewing two juvenile Great Horned Owls and an adult nearby all in very large Shagbark Hickory and Oak trees.  Enjoy the pics.  Oh, and for fun, I took a pic or two of some olw pellets found on the ground near the base of the trees.  Here is some interesting info on them too: http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/indiana/journeywithnature/the-great-horned-owl.xml

[Jen]

Love these pics. I like pic 5 with the sweet owl and that gnarly tree ~

[Barbarian]

Lovely pictures.   The feeding must be good.

I envy you the still 'watching' poses. My recent experiences have been .... "What the h*ll was that ?" ....as a barn owl came out of a building   and a little owl being mobbed as it sat on a phone wire.

Some local brick-built barns (18 and 19C) have built-in owl access holes in the gable ends.

[tmrschessie]

Nice Dave....we have a pair that raise a couple young every other year or so in an old cottonwood tree that has a limb broken off. They have a pair of young in the tree this year. We were watching them the other day and a fox squirrel came down a big limb and one of the adults that we did not see swooped down and caught it. Saved me a 22 round when they come to the bird feeders. Tom

[Perry]

  We have crows all over the place here right now building nests. They ignore all the downed branches and twigs on the ground, peferring to spend all their time breaking off just the right piece from the trees. We even have one with a broken leg that always hangs down when it flies. We throw out scraps and it lands in the yard to eat, usually accompanied by a second crow that does nothing but watch (guarding I assume?).

[G3farms]

Great pics Blue!! What a treat to see them is right.

Perry those crows are some smart! I love to hunt them, they are almost too smart for their own good though. I use a "fighting crows and hoot owl" call that really gets them worked up and coming right in on top of me. They will circle for a bit until they figure out they have been fooled, fly off about 100 yards and gather up in the tree tops and raise all kinds of cane. Finally they convince one of the young dumb ones to go check it out again. Never fails. I like to play it out on job sites if there are crows near by, always gets a good laugh from everybody. When they come in I will clap my hands really loud and you can tell the difference from what I call city crows from country crows by how they react. City crow just keeps circling around, country crow takes evasive measures and high tails it out to the tree line (he has probably been shot at before).

Sorry Blue did not mean to hijack your owl thread, just think crows are interesting!

[blueblood]

No worries G.  I was chuckling while reading about your crow fun.  It made me think those crows in the Disney film Dumbo.

[Bakersdozen]

What a treat for you to see.  Thanks for the pictures.

[G3farms]

Heckel and Jeckel.............hehehe crow fun! 

[Bamabww]

Don't know how I missed this thread but I did. Great pictures. We rarely ever see that in our area. Thanks for sharing your pictures.

[tmrschessie]

Dave, we have a big cottonwood that has a large limb broken near center where a pair of them have a clutch every two years or so. They raised a pair of them this year. We can watch them from the "sun room" while having morning coffee. They get any squirrels or rabbits that wonder around the garden. I put a board in top of a line post and lay the critter on it. One of the adults will take it in short order. They have take one goose out of out flock over the years so guess that is something we can live with. While watching them two weeks ago a squirrel was coming down a limb near them. When it turned it's head ...an adult swooped up from the other side and caught it. Took it to the ground and finished it off then flew to the nest with it....The owls are very efficient hunters. Tom