Owl networking

My local great horned owls, both at Lake Isabella and Symmes Township Park, seem to have taken the year off from parenting. This isn't uncommon, but I've been lost not having nests to watch obsessively.(Notice how I said they were "my" owls?)

When I read on Facebook (that evil place that is killing my blog) that Ann Oliver had spotted great horned owl chicks at Rapid Run Park and alerted Jeff so he could band them, I knew how to spend Saturday morning.


Disapproval starts early.

Ann has mad skills when it comes to providing a crowd with sweet breakfast foods...an assortment of danishes and donuts, coffee, juice,


...and this insanely awesome tablecloth.


And up Jeff goes:


I was thrilled to be able to actually assist in the banding today, helping with the raising and lowering of ropes, the bag containing the chicks, general go-fering. Since I want to be able to do this myself someday, it was great to get my hands in and really help. And learn.

Though I hold Sylvester all the time:(Of which he disapproves, but tolerates)
...I had never held a owl chick before today.
These chicks weren't the small and relatively docile age that I have seen before. These guys were approaching 5 weeks old, and they were...um...feisty.

This mantling is typical behavior, to make themselves appear larger.
But since these guys were older, they had better use of their feet and I had to watch out for a bit of lunging and biting, too.
I was over the moon, though. Being a part of this, handling these mixtures of cute and dangerous, well. It was flippin' fantastic.



Jeff mentioned a behavior he has observed in other nests that is as funny as it is mysterious.
The first chick is banded and then lowered to the ground. The second chick is banded and also lowered to the ground. They are separated for no more than a few minutes, but when they are reunited, they act like they have never seen each other before. They mantle and hiss as if a fierce war is about to commence.
Do they actually "forget" each other in those few minutes? Or are they just in defense mode, at any thing that is close by?

Ann was inspiring to watch. As dog walkers walked by, she engaged them in conversation, and let them look through her scope at the adult owl watching us from a distance.



Ann doesn't have a blog to link to. Yet another poor dope. :)



Through all the activity surrounding her nest and babies, Mama Owl sat in a nearby conifer and pretended to sleep.

Non-sequiterous post

I made up that word. Yes, I did.

It snowed last week:

"I like da snew, Mamma."



I tried not to cuss as the snow fell, giving the kids yet another day off school.
I failed.



It was pretty, as it fell (by southern Ohio standards) in massive amounts.
A light, fluffy snow that was easy to plow and keep ahead of.
Didn't keep the numbnuts out there from panicking and running off roads all over the area.






Empty, for now.....

January 15th is the"safe date" for nesting Great Horned Owls around here...some of the pairs start right on schedule. The Lake Isabella pair seems to favor the end of January into the beginning of February.
Click here and here for other posts about this nest.
Just a few more days until I can start checking the can obsessively.



Our neighbor walks right past one of the RSHA (the big orange lollipop) resting near our prairie:


New River Update:
People started coming out of the woodwork after my last post...and there are a few spots still available at the Farmhouse. If you want to come along and have the time of your life, email me at capricorn1273@cinci.rr.com ASAP. There aren't many slots left for the festival...and we need to register NOW.

Birds of prey in Autumn sunlight

I love the light of Autumn. It infuses everything with a richness that would be missed in other seasons.

Our new education screech owl, Thirteen...at this past weekend's Pumpkin Chuck:
(I didn't get to see any pumpkin chucking. I was mobbed by the public when they saw our birds)

I sure do love that bird. He thinks he is 10 feet tall.

Sylvester was a peach, as usual.
The only thing that makes that bird react is nesting season. He is showing signs of it now...and it's not like he becomes a punk or anything. Just gets his feathers ruffled a bit more.
Good bird.

(I even caught a circling turkey vulture above his head.)


Lucy was more than happy to demonstrate the art of raptor gourmet eating:

The quail never saw it coming.


This morning, a red-shouldered hawk awaited me as I left for the day:

Glowing with that unique Fall sunrise.

It retired to the house next door as I pulled out of the driveway.

Ah, that red. More pure and more hot than any Crayola color.

And finally, take off:

"Look, Ma! No bands!"

"My kids...they never call."

Long-time readers of this blog will remember my obsession with the Lake Isabella Great Horned Owl family. These ever-fierce, powerful avian predators have nested at the man-made nest site continuously for years, and I have been watching them since 2006.

At the end of this nesting season, banding of the single owlet brought out many dignitaries of the Cincinnati blogging community. Added to the nest was a "foster" owlet who needed a nest with a step-sibling the same age.

Baby owls go from small piles of dryer lint to tall, slightly fuzzy predators fairly quickly, "branching", i.e. leaving the nest and hanging onto large branches shortly after reaching adult size. And once they fledge, we may never see them again.

Enter Jack Verdin, Owl-Stalker.
Just got an email from him...he saw both of the six-month old owls today, bleating like goats at their parents. (Great Horned Owls, for their first year, will food-beg nearly up to the next nesting season, so just because their babies have left the nest doesn't mean the adults get a lot of peace and quiet.)
Jack couldn't make out the band numbers on the young owls, so he couldn't say who was who.


But a sighting of these once-fuzzy owls is a fine thing. A fine thing indeed.




























They look all grown up, don't they?
(I think they need to work on those plumicorns, though.)
:)

Friday Feathers...with full disgruntlement

We have been very lucky this summer to be able to enjoy cooler than normal temps.
Yesterday was an exception. Hot and humid.

You know, everyone enjoys a nice misting of cool water on a hot Summer day....






"Thank you. This is quite refreshing. I could sit here all day and let you do that."



....even if they would rather DIE than let you know they appreciate it:

"No. I am NOT enjoying this. I hate to get wet. This is unpleasant. That stuff is all over me.....
...(stretching foot toward me)....you missed a spot."

Bird Banding

Bird banding has a long history. The first person to attempt to mark a bird was Quintus Fabius Pictor, somewhere around 200 b.c. This Roman officer was sent a swallow from a besieged garrison and used thread on its leg to send back a message.
Falconers in the Middle Ages would affix plates to their falcons with seals of their owners.

Banding (or "ringing" if you're British) for scientific purposes began in 1899 with Christian Mortensen, a Danish schoolteacher, using zinc rings on European starlings, hawks, storks, etc.

Banding comes in many forms: leg bands, neck collars, radio transmitters, dyeing of feathers and wing tags.
Aside from banding the bird, measurements like weight, toe pad length, wingspan, etc. are collected.

From the USGS:
The first records of banding in North America are those of John James Audubon, the famous American naturalist and painter. In 1803 he tied silver cords to the legs of a brood of phoebes near Philadelphia and was able to identify two of the nestlings when they returned to the neighborhood the following year.

Today, the program stretches from the Canadian Arctic to the tropics of Latin America, from Newfoundland to the far Pacific islands, and beyond to places like Siberia, Greenland, and Antarctica. Wherever North American birds go, bird banding is there.

Virtually all species are, or have been, banded. Currently, 1,200,000 birds are banded, and 85,000 recovered, each year. More than 63,000,000 birds have been banded since the beginning of the program, and 3,500,000 have been recovered and reported to the banding offices. Millions more have been recaptured or resighted by banders.

These banders include federal and state conservation agencies; university associates; avocational ornithologists; bird observatories; environmental centers; nongovernmental organizations; environmental consulting firms, and other private sector businesses. Currently, more than 6,100 banders are operating in US and Canada.

If you are a birder, you know the value of bird banding. The sheer physical abilities of the birds, the distances they travel, their life spans, trends in migration and a species status among a changing environment...all are known thanks to banding.

Some fun wild bird banding stats:
Gray catbird banded in Florida was found in Pennsylvania 13 years later.
Atlantic puffin....lived for 31 years, 11 months.
Great Horned Owl...lived for 28 years.
Red-tailed hawk: 28 years, 10 months.

I have a favorite saying, and I wish I knew who coined it. Here it is:
We conserve only what we love.
We love only what we understand.
We understand only what we are taught.
Non-birders or those who have not had the opportunity of this knowledge might have some opinions about banding birds. Maybe they think we are "harassing" wildlife, that we are dooming a bird to die by placing a metal or plastic band to its leg. I'd like to help erase those opinions now.
Bird bands are very light. They are sized appropriately for the species that will wear it. A hummingbird's band weighs less than one-hundredth of a gram! By comparison, a hummingbird wearing a band is the equivalent to a human wearing a wrist watch.
We can't give a bird our phone number so they can call us to report on its whereabouts or how it's doing. A recovered band is invaluable.
Banding is done with the utmost respect given to the bird, and a bird is kept in hand no longer than absolutely necessary.
If there are those who still have doubts about banding, remember this:
We have been banding for 100 years in this country. It's working.

Now, onto some photos from a great horned owl banding:

The one chick in the nest is banded....


...then gently lowered to the ground to let wildlife photographers get photos of this bundle of grit and attitude that they have been obsessively watching for weeks:



As luck would have it, an orphaned owlet needed another nest, and she was brought out to compare with Owlet #1:


Meet your new sister:


They are approximately the same age, and feeding two babies is more than manageable for the parents. (Great Horned Owls can't count, anyway!)

Owlet #2 looks up at her new home.
The youngin's were placed in the nest, and given a free meal. Reports from a certain Owl Sitter say that both chicks are still in the nest and the parents are preening and feeding both owlets.



This little event brought out some weird but friendly people:

Nina, in a strangely familiar pose....

Also my mother, kids and Kathi, aka KatDoc:



I made everyone strike a pose that seems to have become a tradition...Everybody POINT!!!

One sweet little fuzzy head

The official count of chicks in the Lake Isabella Great Horned Owl nest stands at ONE. (The chick is that whitish-gray fuzz on the left of the can.)

(Photo by Roman J. (Jack) Verdin)

I watched with Jack for quite a while, and he promised that the adult feeds the chick every hour or so. I didn't get to see any action today, but I'm sure he's telling the truth. He's the Unofficial OwlSitter.



(And he reads the blog. Hi, Jack!)

Now that's something you don't see every day!*

Take heart, gentle readers. Spring is showing up. Very slowly....

I have been worried for the great horned owl pair at Lake Isabella. Last year, I had just about given up on them, when they finally got their butts in gear and started laying eggs on January 29th. (Ohio's great horned owls get their babies started really early in the year, like mid-January)
It's been my thing to check on the nest can every morning, which I have been doing every day since January 15th. Today, they made my day.


Day One of incubation, 2009. About time, you goofy owls!
I love being able to go look at an owl whenever I want. If you have any parks near you that have GHOW nests, (if you aren't sure, ask the naturalist...and obey the Owl Roosting/Nesting rules!) you should go have a look. I work with owls almost every day at RAPTOR, but wild owls are harder to come by.
The Owl Roosting/Nesting rules:

• If you suspect that an area is being used as a roost or nest site you must not disturb it, but watch from a safe distance.

• Do not disturb the birds in any way
• If you accidentally stray close to a nest, move quickly and quietly away

So there I was, grinning like an idiot and cranking my zoom as far as it would go. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of feathers. I lowered the camera and saw a red-tailed hawk land in a tree about 40 feet from the owl nest. Cool.




Wait a minute....a red-tailed hawk and a great horned owl at the same time???? Was I dreaming this??

I slide around the corner of the shelter so I could get a photo of an owl and a hawk at the same time.



This was OSSUM. I then wondered if a fight would break out. My first thought was, "Cool, I can watch!" and then, "I could document!"
Alas, no fight. The red-tailed hawk flew off down the river to pick off an overfed squirrel or juicy wood rat.

After the Owl Glow cooled, I noticed all the avian hormones around me. Robins were chased each other. Titmice were chasing each other. Chickadees and cardinals were chased each other.
And the Canada Geese really, really needed to do some butt-biting:



See? Spring is coming. The birds know.


*Blogger says that I have used that title before....huh.*

A great weekend to be Outdoors

What a great day.

A day spent teaching the public about birds of prey and their importance...meeting new faces, grilling out, baked beans and chips.

The first part of the day was a four-hour informal program with some of our birds perched out in front of the CNC. Storm, Sylvester, Isis and Lucy.

A word (or many) about Isis:
A few months ago, I found it more and more difficult to use Isis for programs. Her original injury (a gunshot to her right wing...what kind of idiot would shoot a hawk like her????) had become so calloused, every time she hit it against something in her mew, it would bleed. And she was breaking blood feathers constantly.
Being a nearly pure-white bird, it was rather obvious that she was a mess. I went to our board and our bird care director and asked them to do something. She went to one of our vets, who agreed that more of the wing needed to be removed.
A small portion of the remaining bone was removed, leaving a flap of skin. The flap was sewn over the wound and needed only four stitches. She healed up very nicely (and is even growing feathers back where there were none) and today was her grand re-opening to the public. She does very well perched out for programs, but today she was even better than I thought.

(that's the GHOW way in the back, doing his "I am a totem pole" thing)

I do love that owl...

Such a polite bird (except at sunset when he's more active, and in the months of December and January, when hormones get the best of him)

A very, very cool find:
In front of the red barn, we were all chatting and had no idea a small amount of possible death was crawling around our feet. Craig, a young volunteer, shouted, "There's a black widow!"
Nunh-uh.

Yep, it was:


Someone handed me a stick so I could turn her over to get a shot of that red hourglass...then I realized that I was hold an effing black widow spider and someone needed to rescue me.
I tried very hard not to cuss.

She was gently and respectfully carried to the woods' edge and deposited.

Let's meet Ethan:

This darling 6 year old...here's the history of RAPTOR and him:
Last year at the Great Outdoor Weekend, I met Ethan and his mom, Liz. This kid had a very healthy interest in birds of prey, and birds in general. I had a great time talking with him and marveling at his knowledge.
A few months later, I got a call from his mom for an educational program at Ethan's birthday party.
Thanks to that program, I got in the Cincinnati Enquirer, the article saying that this was the "new" way to throw a kid's birthday. I got quite a few programs out of that.
And today, he and his mom were at the member's picnic. Turns out that Ethan is a member of RAPTOR now. The youngest member, to be exact.

I had to photograph him with some of our birds.


During a nature walk earlier in the day, he found some feathers...he showed me where he had thrown them back into the woods (because he remembered what I had said about them being protected and that possessing them was a crime). My God. Someone is actually listening to my programs?
He said there were many, many "downy" feathers, so something had tackled something.

The one on the left is a great horned owl feather, and at first, I thought the other one was a red-shouldered hawk. I did some research and found that this was a turkey feather. Looks like a GHOW tackled a turkey. Awesome.



"I disapprove of your use of fire. And what the Hell is a S'more?"


I was putting Isis back in her carrier as the picnic ended, and realized I didn't have a picture of Isis and me.
Cindy, our Bird Care Director, was good enough to oblige:

Good bird. Glad you are feeling better.

The whole day was so fun. I got to meet old RAPTOR members, revel in some new ones, and Isis, our Flagship Bird, is feeling great. Life is good.