Sometimes You Go Out And Find A Bird, And Other Times The Bird Finds You. What With It Still Being February,

I guess I'm an owl guy now. Just last week I learned about an Eastern Screech-Owl pair that has been nesting in Monona, WI for at least three years, so I had to go take a look over the weekend. The pictures below were all taken on Sunday.

[ID: An Eastern Screech-Owl sleeps in the knotty hole of a tree. The Owl is a red morph, with tawny brown feathers on the head, wings, and breast. Dark brown streaks and white patches make for a scaly camouflage effect on the lower breast and belly. The Owl has tiny brown ear tufts that stick up from the top of her head above feathery white brows. From this angle, the Owl is facing the left side of the frame, with just a little bit of beak and talon visible among the puffed feathers. Her left eye is a black slit, tightly closed against the daylight. End ID]

I visited the nest site a couple times on Saturday between other birding excursions in the area, but had no luck. The tree pretty much hangs over the road in a residential area, so it was super easy to swing by and have a look. It may have been too cold and windy that day for the Owl to want to sleep out in the open.

[ID: An Eastern Screech-Owl sleeps in the knotty hole of a tree. The Owl is a red morph, with tawny brown feathers on the head, wings, and breast. Dark brown streaks and white patches make for a scaly camouflage effect on the lower breast and belly. The Owl has tiny brown ear tufts that stick up from the top of her head above feathery white brows. From this angle, the Owl is facing the camera directly, with just a little bit of beak and talon visible among the puffed feathers. Her eyes are black slits, tightly closed against the daylight. End ID]

I met several other nice birders that were there for exactly the same reason as me. Some just popping out of their cars for a quick look and others stopping to chat or swap birding stories and intel for a while. A mother and son from Monticello, a retiree from somewhere 90 minutes away (he didn't say) who left to seek out the same Snowy Owl I saw a week prior, folks who live just down the block and see the Screech-Owl at least once a week. We learned from past sighting reports that the red morph of this pair is the female and the grey morph is the male, due to their relative size and courtship behaviors. (With many predatory bird species, the females are generally larger than the males, even when coloration between the sexes is identical.) The owner of the house across the street explained that the female has been back living in the nest hole for a couple weeks, but she hasn't seen the male yet this year.

[ID: An Eastern Screech-Owl sleeps in the knotty hole of a tree. The Owl is a red morph, with tawny brown feathers on the head, wings, and breast. Dark brown streaks and white patches make for a scaly camouflage effect on the lower breast and belly. The Owl has tiny brown ear tufts that stick up from the top of her head above feathery white brows. From this angle, the Owl is facing to the right of the frame, with just a little bit of beak and talon visible among the puffed feathers. Her eyes are black slits, tightly closed against the daylight. End ID]

At the end of the day, I decided to wait with one other birder (who had driven about two hours from Menasha) in the hopes that the Owl would emerge before sunset. We weren't completely without luck, as the Owl decided to sleep in until around 5:30pm, when basically all light had gone from the sky. I only saw her because she immediately flew from the hole and landed on a nearby roof to take a look around. Neither of us got a single usable picture, but I could see her well enough through the binoculars to make a positive ID and log my 190th species. My compatriot had to return home that night, but I decided to keep an eye on eBird and pop back over if someone else happened to see the Owl during the day.

[ID: An Eastern Screech-Owl sleeps in the knotty hole of a tree. The Owl is a red morph, with tawny brown feathers on the head, wings, and breast. Dark brown streaks and white patches make for a scaly camouflage effect on the lower breast and belly. The Owl has tiny brown ear tufts that stick up from the top of her head above feathery white brows. From this angle, the Owl is facing the left side of the frame, with just a little bit of beak and talon visible among the puffed feathers. Her left eye is a black slit, tightly closed against the daylight. End ID]

As I'm sure you guessed from the photos in this post, other folks reported the Eastern Screech-Owl sleeping out in the open midmorning on Sunday. So I finished my chores and tossed my gear in the car for yet another short drive to Monona. And much to my delight, she was still there when I arrived, completely asleep and looking quite comfortable! (One of the birders from Saturday had mentioned that she likes to sleep out in the open when it's warmer and not so windy.) I snapped about 700 photos from various angles, then went to meet up with my good friend Rachel.

[ID: An Eastern Screech-Owl sleeps in the knotty hole of a tree. The Owl is a red morph, with tawny brown feathers on the head, wings, and breast. Dark brown streaks and white patches make for a scaly camouflage effect on the lower breast and belly. The Owl has tiny brown ear tufts that stick up from the top of her head above feathery white brows. From this angle, the Owl is facing to the right of the frame, with just a little bit of beak and talon visible among the puffed feathers. Her eyes are black slits, tightly closed against the daylight. End ID]

You see, Rachel got me into birding in the first place, and she and her partner were coming to Madison to visit and go to a hockey game that evening. I made sure to let her know that she better bring her binoculars if she was interested in taking a small detour to pick up a lifer. And being a very well-behaved Owl, the Screecher didn't move an inch from her roost. The light was better this time, so I had to snap another 600 pictures or so. We met a few more birders and checked around the base of the tree for pellets, but didn't find any. We wondered about the species of the tree (I thought ash, she leaned toward box elder), then said goodbye to the Owl. It's certainly fun to pick up a lifer when I'm out by myself, but I find it even more enjoyable to share that moment with someone else.

I've done a lot of birding the past couple months and not a lot of posting, so I'm going back to our Tucson, AZ trip from April. I hadn't been to the Western US since picking up birding or wildlife photography, so I knew I was going to pick up a ton of lifers. One of our target species for the trip was also my fifth Owl species ever: the Burrowing Owl.

[ID: A Burrowing Owl stands on a mound of dirt. They are facing left and looking toward the camera. The sun is low in the sky off to the right, which illuminates the right side of the Owl's face and their back, while casting the rest in shadow. They have striking yellow eyes and a furrowed brow that gives them the appearance of a permanent scowl. Their oval-shaped head transitions naturally into a slender cylindrical body covered in mottled tan and white feathers. About half the bird's height is body and folded wings, with two naked grey legs planted on the ground. End ID]

This was the morning we had picked for me to do some solo birding, so I drove out to a spot west of Tucson where eBird indicated that Burrowing Owls were likely to appear. It was just after sunrise when I found the road cutting between farm fields where the Owls were reported. I drove slowly down the side of the road in my rented Dodge Charger, stopping occasionally to inspect a suspicious clump of dirt with my binoculars. I had not seen any sign of the Owls when a Land Rover pulled up behind me. A group of three folks in their 60s with binoculars piled out of car, clearly more birders here to do exactly what I was doing.

[ID: A Burrowing Owl stands on a mound of dirt, facing the camera. The sun is still low in the sky, but now the bird's face and chest are more brightly lit, showing the transition in feather colors from tan to mottled tan to white as they progress downward from collar to belly.]

They introduced themselves as coming from the UK, and had been visiting Arizona for several weeks in search of all the unique birds the state could offer. The driver was particularly puzzled about the location of the Owls, saying he was "absolutely foxed" that this place with no real habitat could host Burrowing Owls. I showed him the recent sightings on eBird and explained that it was possible the birds just hadn't emerged from their burrows yet.

After another 15 minutes of searching the fields, I offered to lead them to an alternate site nearby. We got in our cars and slowly drove back the way we had come. Just as we were approaching the end of the road, I spotted a small tan creature standing right on the edge of the irrigation ditch along the near side of the field. A Burrowing Owl! I swung the Charger around and flagged down my companions, who had also spotted the Owl.

[ID: A pair of Burrowing Owls stand on a mound of dirt. The one in the foreground looks decidedly sleepier and plumper than the one in the background (seen in previous images). Both Owls are similar in coloration, but the one in the foreground has an aluminum leg band for identifying them. End ID]

We got out to take a look and grab some photos from long distance, then slowly crept forward with my Charger as a rolling blind. There turned out to be four Owls spread out along the irrigation ditch, likely close to their burrows which were out of sight. They were surprisingly unbothered by the cars rolling up to them, probably because they see trucks and farm vehicles driving past all day every day. Once we were directly across the irrigation ditch from the closest pair, I climbed into the passenger seat to take some better photosm. Mostly the Owls just stood on their tiny hill and looked around. Though I did witness one of the pair above fly down to pounce on a grasshopper, then return to feed it to their partner.

[ID: A pair of Burrowing Owls stand on a mound of dirt. This photo was taken midday, with the sun directly overhead. At least one of these individuals is different from those above, as they have two leg bands instead of one. It's also apparent in the photo that the Owls are standing at the edge of a farm field from the row of green plants out of focus in the background. End ID]

I had such a great view of the Burrowing Owls that I had to bring my family back to see them on our last day in Tucson. Because we were heading out of town in the middle of the day, I was confident we'd find them right away and avoid testing the patience of my kid. It turns out I didn't have to worry. Not only were the Owls right where I left them, but the kid had fallen asleep on the drive, so we had to wake him up to see them! And seeing as I already had the camera within easy reach, I had to take a few more photos.

[ID: A Burrowing Owl stands on a mound of dirt. This one is looking alert in the midday sun, standing and scanning the area around the edge of the farm field. End ID]

On a trip full of exciting views, long hikes, and thousands of photos, it was nice to finish the trip quietly sitting in the car just a few yards away from such a compelling bird. And it always feels good to track down a lifer and share that experience with others!

owls from animal crossing new horizons

-bella

Over the summer, I decided I had reached a plateau in the quality of shots I could expect with my beginner DSLR (Canon EOS Rebel T7i). I messed around with a couple different mirrorless cameras and eventually landed on the Canon EOS R5. After renting one for a weekend, I was pretty well convinced that this was the camera for me.

I think this may have been the shot that sold me, though. I was wandering the paths at Pheasant Branch Conservancy and decided to sit for a moment at the end of the boardwalk leading to the river there. After a few minutes, I spotted something flying low over the river headed right toward me. I got her in frame just as she turned upward to find a perch in a tree on the bank.

[ID: A female Belted Kingfisher flies up and to the left with wings fully outstretched. She's in a sharp turn and looking up to find a perch out of the frame. She has a blue-grey head and wings, with a white body and alternating pattern of white and grey on the underside of her wings. She is clearly identified as female from the bright orange across her breast and orange patches in her wing pits. End ID]

I realized it was a female Belted Kingfisher only after reviewing the ten or so frames from that one burst shot. It wasn't my first time seeing this species, but it is surely my best capture of one to date. I would not have managed to pull focus so quickly or freeze the bird with that level of detail on my previous equipment. Being able to capture photos like this after only a few hours with the camera made it pretty clear that it was the right choice.

I went birding at Aldo Leopold Nature Center in Monona, WI today. One highlight of the hike was all the American Tree Sparrows foraging in the tall grass around the center. This one in particular was checking me out quite a bit from various perches just off the path. (I could tell it was the same one from that little bit of something stuck to their bill.)

[ID: An American Tree Sparrow clings to a small twig. The Sparrow fills the frame, showing the details of the tan and brown streaks in its wings, broken up by two white wing bars. Its head is mostly gray with a brown eyeline cutting across a dark eye and a ruddy brown cap. It has the characteristic two-tone bill, grey above and yellow below, with a small bit of something black stuck to the lower bill. End ID]

I also got to see two distinct Red-tailed Hawks wheeling around overhead, likely looking for prey. The first one is likely immature, judging from the banded tail without much red in it, while the second one is clearly an adult.

[ID: An immature Red-tailed Hawk soars in an overcast sky. The hawk is mostly while, with brown streaks on the head and breast. the wings have flecks of brown, and the light shining through the wings and tail show thin bars. End ID]

[ID: An adult Red-tailed Hawk flies toward the camera at an angle. The hawk is mostly white with a brown head and brown edges on the outstretched wings. Its yellow legs are hanging down, showing an aluminum leg band on the left one. The tail is fanned and tawny brown, indicating that this is a mature adult. End ID]

There were also lots of Dark-eyed Juncos mixed in with the Tree Sparrows. They were generally more skittish, but I did snag this nice photo of a Junco checking the scene from the top of a bare bush.

[ID: A Dark-eyed Junco sits on a bare twig at the top of a bush, looking just to the left of straight at the camera. It is almost entirely grey, with white underparts and a pale pink beak. End ID]

Now that spring is here, we're starting to see some changes in the local bird population. New faces are starting show up, and even the year-round species are out singing and generally being visible. There's territory to claim and potential mates to attract, after all. But while many species are just arriving or passing through, one that's dear to me is just about ready to depart.

[ID: A male Dark-eyed Junco stands in the newly-revealed grass and dead leaves. Juncos are small birds, about the size of a sparrow. This one is the slate-colored variety, with a dark grey head and upper body, contrasting with bright white underparts. He's facing the camera and looking slightly to the left. His eye is dark brown, nearly black, and his triangular bill is pale pink. End ID]

The Dark-eyed Juncos are strictly winter residents of southern Wisconsin, preferring to nest in Canada, the Northeast US, and parts of Appalachia. This past weekend, I could tell they had migration on their minds.

[ID: Another male Dark-eyed Junco, standing among dead twigs and sunflower seed shells. This one is darker grey in the head and breast, with lighter grey on the wings and a bit of rust color on the back. End ID]

For most of winter it's fairly common to see a solitary Junco or pairs or small groups picking through the snow under the birdfeeders in our backyard. But now they're forming a flock of at least 30 birds, foraging together and singing their loose trilling song. It's as if they know they have a long flight ahead, and every moment of daylight must be spent filling the tank and gathering their compatriots.

[ID: A male Dark-eyed Junco forages in the twigs and leaves for scattered birdseed. Juncos scrape at the ground with both feet simultaneously in a little hop, then inspect the freshly-exposed ground for tasty morsels. This one is mid-scrape, with debris flying around it. End ID]

So I decided to sit on the deck with my camera for a while to bid the Juncos farewell until next winter. I've been scattering seed back there every so often, and the other birds aren't exactly neat or careful when digging through the feeder above. As such, the Juncos have lots to choose from while poking around between the squirrels and the Mourning Doves. Once I sat down, they didn't seem to mind me at all.

[ID: A female Dark-eyed Junco inspects the ground for bits of seed. The females are distinguished from the males by their paler grey upper parts, sometimes with more brown and tan shades mixed with the grey. End ID]

Though, the birds did seem to mind when my kid joined me on the deck, brandishing his bright green snow shovel. They scattered to the trees or the fence and stayed there until I convinced him to put the shovel away in favor of coating the deck boards in a thick layer of sidewalk chalk.

[ID: A female Dark-eyed Junco sits on a wooden fence, waiting patiently for the danger posed by a nearby four-year-old to pass. The wind is catching the white feathers on her left hip and flipping them up like the flounce of a skirt. End ID]

As the sun sank lower in the sky, I figured I better get dinner started. I spent another minute or two listening to the evening birdsong before capping my lens and helping to knock the chalk dust off my kid's coat and pants. This sudden activity caused the Juncos to scatter once again. Have a safe trip little ones. I'll see you when the snow flies.

[ID: A female Dark-eyed Junco stands in the dirt, looking at the camera with head cocked to one side, as though she's wondering what this person finds so interesting about her. End ID]

You ever see a Pileated Woodpecker on the ground? Me neither, but this guy was about as close as he could get to it.

[ID: A Pileated Woodpecker sits on a rotting log. It's the largest species of Woodpecker in Wisconsin, almost as large as a crow. They are over a foot long and have a wingspan of more than two feet. They are almost all black on the body, tail, and wings, with black and white striping lengthwise along the neck and face. Both males and females have a large red crest that sweeps back off the top of the head. Males like this one have a red "mustache" stripe on either side of the mouth, while females have a black stripe there. This one is looking off to the right, allowing for a good view of his pointy beak, almost as long as the rest of his head. End ID]

I was wandering Bill's Woods at the UW Lakeshore Nature Preserve with my family this past August when I spotted this enormous creature. He was digging around in a dead fall about 20 feet from the path, clearly looking for delicious bugs. He was not bothered by my excited whisper of "Pileated!!" to alert my partner and child, and kept at his digging for a minute while I adjusted my camera for the very shady scene.

[ID: The Pileated Woodpecker continues to dig around in an open cavity in the dead fall. In this photo he is facing away from the camera and has momentarily lifted his head to look around. End ID]

My kid was not impressed and continued down the path, allowing his mother only a brief look before she too had to move on to keep him in sight. The Pileated then flew to the base of a large tree to pick around a bit more. Finding nothing of interest, he decided to cross the path, flying about 5 feet above my head!

[ID: The Pileated Woodpecker clings to the base of a large tree. This photo offers a better look at his unusual feet, with two toes pointing forward and two pointing backward. This adaptation helps the bird more easily grab onto to the sides of trees and hop from place to place, using his stiff tail as the third "leg"of the tripod. End ID]

I have a funny relationship with these skittish birds. It seems like they almost never want to show themselves, preferring to call and drum from thick woods. But then they pick the oddest times to show up and act as though us humans are just part of the scenery.

This one is mine! Can you make the ID?

What's the Bird?

Location: Pima County, Arizona

Date: April 2023

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I went looking for spring ducks the other day. The boardwalk between Upper Mud Lake and Lake Waubesa in Madison is usually a great place to see all the weird waterfowl that migrate through in March. And they were there! The trouble this year is we had such a warm February that almost all the ice was already gone from the lakes. So pretty much everyone except the Mallards were way out in the middle of the water. And this goof:

[ID: An American Coot stands on a small patch of vegetation at the edge of a lake. They're turned away from the camera, but looking back over their shoulder. The Coot has a slate grey body about the size and shape of a football, and black head with a bone white bill and a dark red eye. Their lobed feet are a pale yellowish green, great for walking on top of loose marsh vegetation and mud. End ID]

I'm quite fond of American Coots. Silly name aside, they have an awkward profile, beady little eyes, and beautifully weird feet. We only see them here during spring and fall migration, so it's a little treat to have flocks of them passing through. And this one in particular didn't seem to mind us watching them pick along the shore from the boardwalk. Just a sassy little glance over their shoulder before going back to their foraging.

I came home today after an afternoon of birding with my kid to find a Red-tailed Hawk surveying my yard from the top of the nearest utility pole. Very fortunate that I had the camera at the ready! It was mostly ignoring me, which allowed for many photos from different angles. Even so, I managed to capture just a few frames of it staring right down the lens.

I also stepped around to the front porch at a lower angle to take a couple of portraits. My sharpest pics of a Red-tailed Hawk to date!

[ID 1: A portrait of a Red-tailed Hawk staring down in my general direction. The picture shows just the head and shoulders, both light brown and streaked, as well and the upper part of the off-white chest.

ID 2: A portrait of a Red-tailed Hawk staring off the left of the frame. The picture shows just the head and shoulders, both light brown and streaked, as well and the upper part of the off-white chest.

ID 3: A Red-tailed Hawk sitting on top of a utility pole, looking straight into the camera. It appears to be a light morph, with mostly off-white feathers broken up by a band of brown speckles along the breast. It's head is mostly brown and streaked. The eyes are bright yellow and glinting in the hazy afternoon sunlight. It's standing on one large yellow foot, with long dark claws wrapped around the top of the pole. End ID]