Happy BirthDay

Today, April 22, is Earth Day. It's a special day where we show our appreciation for the natural world and are more aware of the things that we need to do to preserve it.On Earth Day 2007 I began the Ecobirder Blog. During the past six years there have been good times and bad times, there have been days where I could not wait to share pictures and posts and days where it took almost every thing that I had to write a post for the day. During all this time many of you have visited often and left comments and encouragements for which I would like to thank you. With out you this blog would not be here. It has become kind of a tradition to share pics from the calendars that I make each year on this special day. So keeping with tradion here are the pictures from the 2013 Ecobirder Calendar. 

Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO

Ferruginous pygmy owl San Miguelito Ranch, Tx

 Altamira oriole at Bentsen State Park, Tx

Sandhill crane colt Necedah NWR, Wi

Western grebe Bosque del Apache, NM

Cabbage white butterfly River Bend Nature Center, MN

Red-headed woodpeckers Necedah NWR, Wi.

Gold-fronted woodpecker  Santa Ana NWR, Texas.

 Pied-billed grebe Crex Meadows, Wi

Black Bear Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary, MN

 Gulf Fritillary Santa Ana NWR, Texas.

 Sandhill cranes Boque del Apache, MN

Northern Saw-whet owl Dodge Nature Center, MN

Thanks for a great year!

Northern Saw-whet Owl

 The northern saw-whet owl is a small owl that is found in coniferous forests in southern Canada, the northern United States and the Rocky Mountain region.Unlike many other species of owls many northern saw-whet owls that breed in the northern portion of their range migrate south into the middle and southern United States. Their scientific name, Aegolius acadicus, comes from the fact that they were first described by John Henry Keen in the 1890 in what was then Acadia, now it is Nova Scotia. The bird above is an education bird at The Raptor Center and her name is Nova.

 The northern saw-whet gets its common name from its call which resembles the sound of a saw blade being drawn across a whet stone during sharpening. They are cavity nester and primarily nocturnal. At night they hunt typically searching for deer mice, which seems to be their prey of choice although they also eat other small mammals, birds and insects.They often take most of the day to eat a large mouse, sleeping in between feedings. I had the opportunity to photograph this norther saw-whet in the wild every day for a month late last winter. On several occasions she had a mouse that she had caught during the night and I waited hours for her to wake up, open her eyes, and eat.

Nova the Northern Saw-whet Owl

 Our newest education bird at The Raptor Center is this cute little northern saw-whet owl. As their name implies the northern saw-whet are birds that are found in the north. Their range includes southern Canada, northern U.S. and parts of the Rocky Mountains. Northern saw-whets often migrate south during the winter when food becomes scarce in their northern range. They typically eat mice, particularly deer mice, which they catch while hunting at night.  

 Nova is a female northern saw-whet owl. She was named recently in a public naming contest. The name Nova is short for Nova Scotia which is a province in which the northern saw-whet was first discovered. At that time that part of Canada was a French colony called Acadia which is why the scientific name for the Northern saw-whet is Aegolius acadicus. Nova is unable to be released back to the wild because she is blind in one eye which is pretty noticeable in the photo above.

Welcome to Tuesday Tweets! To join in the fun just post a photo of a bird and then link it by here by using the handy dandy link below. Then make sure you visit other sites to do a little bird watching.

Northern Saw-whet Owl

 

 Our newest education bird at The Raptor Center is a female saw-whet owl. She is not releasable because she is blind in her right eye. She does not have a name yet but we just finished taking suggestions for her name and soon they will let people vote on the one that they like the best. Keep an eye on The Raptor Center website if you would like to participate.

Northern saw-whet owls breed up in mixed coniferous and deciduous forests in Canada, the northern United States, and the Rocky Mountains. Unlike many other species of owls saw-whet owls often migrate south. Each year at Hawk Ridge in Duluth, MN they band quite a few saw-whets as they migrate south in October. In fact in 1995 the banded over 1400 saw-whets at Hawk Ridge, although those numbers are not typical. This female spent a good deal of the winter at the Dodge Nature Center here in the Twin Cities. Each day for a month I would check on her and almost always find her perched in the exact same tree. A couple of times I was treated to her feeding on mouse. Each time I would have to wait for hours as she slept perched on top of her prey before she would wake up to eat but it was well worth it.  

Saw-whet Owl Eating a Mouse

 

One of the best photo opportunities that I had this winter came from a small saw-whet owl that over wintered at local nature center, Dodge Nature Center . The kids in one of the classes at the nature center first found the owl and it was still hanging around a month later when the birding community found out about it. Since the nature center is close to my house I stopped by frequently to check on the bird and snap a few pics. Each day I found it in the same tree. A couple of times it had mice.  I had to wait several hours for it to get hungry enough to wake up and eat, but it was worth it.

Owls

Continuing on with this weeks birthday celebration we had two owls that where like book ends in the 2012 calendar. The January photo, above, was of a northern hawk owls. These are owls that typically live in boreal forests. We see some in northern Minnesota, especially in the winter time when some of the younger birds migrate south in search of better hunting. They are diurnal so they are often active during the day which makes them much easier to photograph. I photographed this bird at the Sax Zim Bog in March.

December featured this little saw-whet owl. Saw-whets nest up in southern Canada but migrate to the northern United Sates during the winter. At Hawk Ridge in Duluth, MN they often catch and band hundreds of these birds as they migrate south in October. A few usually end up in south eastern Minnesota over the winter and if we are lucky we get a chance to see one. This bird spent a couple of days in the backyard of a Twin Cities birder. he was nice enough to let the rest of the birding community come into his yard to get a peak.

Northern Saw-Whet Owl

Hey, Hey, It's our B-Earthday!

Four years ago today I began this blog with a post that said:

Welcome to my new Ecobirder Blog

In honor of Earth Day 2007 I have started my first blog. The purpose of this blog will be to share my love of the environment, wildlife, and birding with others who share these interests.

A couple days later I posted my second post which included 3 pictures of a great horned owl nest that I was photographing at Wood Lake Nature Center. I had hoped to put these pics into my first post but I was very new to blogging and was still trying to figure things out. I wanted to start the blog on Earth Day, since the blog has a lot to do with the earth, nature and environment, so I decided to make an announcement post on Earth Day to start the blog and begin posting the pictures when I was ready.

I figured that for this B-Earthday we would invite a bunch of owls back to help us celebrate. I photographed this little eastern screech owl near Minnehaha Creek in south Minneapolis in December of 2009. I heard about the owl of the MOU list serve but it took me several trips before I finally found it out sunning on New Years Eve. I guess that proves what a nerd that I am, celebrating New Years Eve out freezing my butt off taking pics while everyone else is out getting ready to party.
2009 was a pretty good year for taking owls pics. While I was participating in the Redwing Christmas Bird Count in December of 2009 we decided to quit and head back up to the Twin Cities early. We had heard about a long-eared owl that had been spotted in a park in St Paul during the Bloomington count the week before so we decided to see if we could locate it. It took us a while but we did find the owl. Unfortunately dark comes early in December so the picture is not as good as I would have liked but you don't often get to be picky when it comes to owls.

In 2009 we took a side trip to Idaho during our Yellowstone vacation to participate in the first ever Snake River Birds of Prey Festival. Since we did not have much time, Yellowstone was calling, we only signed up for a field trip on borrowing owls. The field trip was great we had owls out in the field to photograph and even got to open up some man made burrows to check out burrowing owl chicks. Definitely one of the highlights of that year.

I have been fortunate over the years to be able to observe several great horned owl nests. A hawks nest that was taken over in Lakeville, MN has been the most productive for getting pics. Great horned owls have produced young in this nest in 2008,2009 and again this year. In 2009 they raised three young that began to branch, walking out on the branches before they can fly, in April.

So far 2011 has been a pretty good year for photographing owls also. Although I have had the opportunity to photograph northern saw-whet owls during the owl programs at Hawk Ridge over the years, I have not had the opportunity to photograph one that was not trapped for banding until this year. Back in February a saw-whet decided to perch, for a couple of days in someones back yard in Bloomington, MN. Fortunately the home owner was a birder and he got the word out about the owl in his back yard. A lot of people showed up over the next couple of days, myself included, to get some great photos

This year I made a couple of trips up to the Sax Zim Bog during the winter, as I do most every year. The first trip was for the first ever Brrrdathon that was held in January. As often happens in January in Minnesota the first day of the Brrrrdathon was complicated by a snow storm that dropped about six inches of snow in the area. Fortunately the next day, Saturday, the weather turned sunny and it was a great day to be about taking pictures of wildlife. Since I was spending one more night in a hotel in Duluth I stayed out in the bog until it got dark. I was rewarded when a pair of great grey owls began to hunt along the road at dusk. Since great grey owls are crepuscular, active at dusk and dawn, they can be tough to photograph.

In comparison northern hawk owls are diurnal so they are active during the day which makes them much easier to photograph. I saw northern hawk owls on both my trips up to the bog, as I have in most every year. I took this pic on my second trip at the beginning of March. This hawk owl seemed to be very used to people so it was not very nervous about my presence. As such I was able to get some really nice pics.

So another year of blogging has come to an end and a new one begins. This is the 1502 post that I have done in the four year. I have managed to post every day for most of the past three years. I really hope that you have enjoyed coming here and have taken something away from my pictures and writings. If I manage to make it another year I will have to do something really special for my 5th B-Earthday. I have updated the slide show on my side bar, the old one was getting a bit tattered and frayed, and I hope that you enjoy it. I hope to see you all here over the next year and invite you to join in the big party one year from today.

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A New Lifer, Sort of.

Last Saturday I decided to head up to Crex Meadows to check out their camera club. The shy was pretty cloudy so I figured that it would not be a very good day to take pictures. When I got back home around 2:00pm I checked my e-mail and found that a birder in Bloomington had posted that he had a saw-whet owl in his backyard. Unfortunately by that time the owl was no longer around so I decided to take a nap. I did not get much sleep though because I got called into work to handle an emergency. When I got home from work I had another e-mail stating that the owl had returned but alas it was already too dark to try and get a photo.
The next morning I was up early and was checking my e-mail frequently as I worked on my computer. Around 8:00am I noticed an e-mail that the owl had been spotted by the home owner again that morning so I printed out the directions and headed over. When I arrived at the house in Bloomington the owner was not home but another birder was already there and had located the owl perched in an apple tree in the backyard. From the side of the house we had a pretty good view of the bird except there was one branch that was obstructing the view, see the photo above. Even though the picture was not perfect I was still pretty excited because this was the first saw-whet that I had the chance to photograph in the wild, all the others were photographed while they were being banded up at Hawk Ridge.

Shortly after I arrived and got a few shots from the side of the house the owner returned. The other two birders who were there, another arrived as we were photographing from the side of the house, decided to leave so since it was just myself I asked the owner if I could go into the yard to try and get an unobstructed shot. He was very kind and let me go though his house and out the back door. I was able to find a good angle on the bird, with no branches, but unfortunately the bird was not facing the camera, see the shot above.

After taking a couple of shots I figured that I had probably bothered the owl and the home owner enough so I decided to leave. While I was leaving the home owner told me that the owl had perched in a more open spot on Saturday. So I decided to give the owl some time and I headed over to a park that was not far away. A couple of hours later I returned and this time there were many people there to see the owl. The owl had moved to a slightly different location in the same tree and was now surrounded by large camera lenses and gawking birders.

I hung around for a while taking pictures. There was always at least 5 people with big glass in the yard during the time that I was there. Most of the time the owl had its eyes closed but on a couple of occasions when the chickadees began to mob it the owl did open one of its eyes. Then someone decided that he had to get his 500mm camera right on top of the owl. I wanted to say something but was afraid that the ensuing argument would stress the owl even more. So a few minutes later I left. I never saw any more posts about the owl after that day so either the owl moved on or the home owner decided it was better not to invite people over because unfortunately there are people who care more about getting a pic then they do the owl that they are photographing.