I suspect many of you already know these facts, but for beginning birders, whenever you are driving along a road in the winter in snow country, if you spot lots of ravens and crows near road kill, stop and look for eagles. Our nation’s national bird is a top of the food chain scavenger. Yesterday while driving the expressway from Two Harbors, I noticed lots of crows, then roadkill, and then this Bald Eagle. Thus, don’t just blow by road kill at high speed. You may miss a nice photo opportunity.
Monthly Archives: January 2018
The Other Owl!
Yesterday, my readers who subscribe to this blog know I had a fantastic evening … privy to a Snowy Owl fight. Believe it or not, talons were a plenty beyond the Snowies. Northern Hawk Owls, unlike most other owls, hunt during the day. Around noon a friend and I found this individual sharpening his talons up for the midday hunt.
Talons!
Actually not sharpening talons … preening!
If you were a vole, you would be in BIG trouble!
Snowy Owl Fight!
Around 4 pm this afternoon I found a Snowy Owl. For twenty minutes I watched as it slowly awakened and became more alert. A bit after 4:20 pm the Snowy flew 300 yards away and landed on a large snow bank. In a few moments it stretched its head, in what I thought was in preparation to pounce on some unsuspecting vole.
Wrong! There was another Snowy Owl about 100 yards away and suddenly an owl fight was in progress. There was a definite disagreement as to the border of the winter hunting territories! It was super cool to watch, and impossible to photograph as the combination of low light and acrobatics in the air rendered my camera useless. I did capture these images of the take-off, and a final photograph of the victor. Even these photos were tough given the low light. After defeating the other bird, the Snowy Owl returned to the same exact snow pile.
I totally intend to be back to check on these two owls. I don’t believe this altercation is over, and I know their territory dividing line!
