Birdfeeding
Jan. 4th, 2021 05:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithToday started out brightly sunny, so I used window cleaner to clean the window crystals. And then the sky mostly clouded over, so I didn't get the afternoon rainbows. :/ Ah well. There will be other days.
I fed the birds. Lots of cardinals out today. I have also seen at least two different squirrels, as one was Bob, the short-tailed one, while the other had a whole tail. The downy woodpecker is around too.
It's a mild-for-January ~40°F today, so I walked around the yard. I'm really glad I did, because I found some spoor from a great horned owl. :D 3q3q3q!!! Learn how to scout for owls.
This picture shows a wide view of owl whitewash, with a larger splash on the left and a smaller splash on the right.
Here is a closeup showing the larger splash of whitewash.
This is the smaller owl pellet. It has soaked and broken open from recent rain and snow, revealing the bones. They are fairly large for owl prey and broken into pieces. So it's not a mouse and wasn't swallowed whole the way owls often do. My bet is rabbit, as they are numerous here; but it could be squirrel, which we also have. Possibly this was scavenged from roadkill, given how fragmented the bones are. The row of small bones are probably ribs.
This is the larger owl pellet. Here you can see several bone ends showing knuckles. Sadly I did not think to shoot the two owl pellets together, nor the whole spread. The pellets are about a foot or two apart, and a little farther from the whitewash.
I found today's examples below the lightning-struck walnut near the southwest corner of our yard and its adjacent trees. When you find spoor, step back a pace and look up to find the branch(es) used for perching. We most often see our owls in the trees around the ritual meadow during the day, or on top of telephone poles along the road at dusk. Occasionally I've seen them in other places around the yard; we have a lot of big old trees. It makes sense they'd like the lightning walnut; the red-tailed hawks like it too. :D
Learn how to scout for owls and attract them to your yard. Invite owls to your garden: your pests are their dinner. :D You can build a nest platform or nest cone for great horned owls or nest boxes for other owls. Shop for owl nest boxes here. This company sells a raptor perch kit good for most species of owls and other birds of prey.
This reminds me, I forgot to count some of last year's major accomplishments:
* We fledged several great horned owlets in our yard. I'm not sure exactly how many, but at least 2-3, given how many directions they were shrieking from just after leaving the nest.
* We had rose-breasted grosbeaks for a couple of months in spring.
* We saw Baltimore orioles in the yard for the first time ever, although I've seen a couple elsewhere in the area long ago. There were several of them, and I fed them oranges. :D
I fed the birds. Lots of cardinals out today. I have also seen at least two different squirrels, as one was Bob, the short-tailed one, while the other had a whole tail. The downy woodpecker is around too.
It's a mild-for-January ~40°F today, so I walked around the yard. I'm really glad I did, because I found some spoor from a great horned owl. :D 3q3q3q!!! Learn how to scout for owls.
This picture shows a wide view of owl whitewash, with a larger splash on the left and a smaller splash on the right.
Here is a closeup showing the larger splash of whitewash.
This is the smaller owl pellet. It has soaked and broken open from recent rain and snow, revealing the bones. They are fairly large for owl prey and broken into pieces. So it's not a mouse and wasn't swallowed whole the way owls often do. My bet is rabbit, as they are numerous here; but it could be squirrel, which we also have. Possibly this was scavenged from roadkill, given how fragmented the bones are. The row of small bones are probably ribs.
This is the larger owl pellet. Here you can see several bone ends showing knuckles. Sadly I did not think to shoot the two owl pellets together, nor the whole spread. The pellets are about a foot or two apart, and a little farther from the whitewash.
I found today's examples below the lightning-struck walnut near the southwest corner of our yard and its adjacent trees. When you find spoor, step back a pace and look up to find the branch(es) used for perching. We most often see our owls in the trees around the ritual meadow during the day, or on top of telephone poles along the road at dusk. Occasionally I've seen them in other places around the yard; we have a lot of big old trees. It makes sense they'd like the lightning walnut; the red-tailed hawks like it too. :D
Learn how to scout for owls and attract them to your yard. Invite owls to your garden: your pests are their dinner. :D You can build a nest platform or nest cone for great horned owls or nest boxes for other owls. Shop for owl nest boxes here. This company sells a raptor perch kit good for most species of owls and other birds of prey.
This reminds me, I forgot to count some of last year's major accomplishments:
* We fledged several great horned owlets in our yard. I'm not sure exactly how many, but at least 2-3, given how many directions they were shrieking from just after leaving the nest.
* We had rose-breasted grosbeaks for a couple of months in spring.
* We saw Baltimore orioles in the yard for the first time ever, although I've seen a couple elsewhere in the area long ago. There were several of them, and I fed them oranges. :D
