All posts by richardhoeg@gmail.com

Owling with Rich circa 2026!

Year 13

Isn’t technology wonderful?! Last year I had to being hiking in the woods by 6:00 am (1 hour 20 minutes prior to sunrise) awaiting the morning “love hoot”. Some mornings my local owls were cooperative while other mornings they remained silent. My goal for being a “crazy man who hikes in the pitch dark forest” was to discover the nesting area. Male Great Horned Owls during the final courting process will perch within 20 yards of their lady love’s nest. Given the hoot I then note the location and revisit during daylight hours and find the owl’s latest home.

As noted, this year I am doing things differently because of BirdNET-Pi (my own post on how to build your own listening device). I also have three other target locations where I will be able to take similar birding actions … two Great Horned Owl territories and one Barred Owl domain. Ain’t technology sweet?! (Owling with Rich … the movie … video link for email subscribers)

The Movie!

Birding the Vole Snatchers

Year 13

Two days ago I made my trek over to Superior, and saw not one, or two but three Snowy Owls. However, although the Snowys are definitely “vole snatchers”, the real fun was watching this Red Fox hunt the airport grounds. I think the fox understood how fences work. Red understood it was on one side of the fence, and I was on the other side. It walked to within 25 yards of me which was totally unexpected and amazing. The sun came out briefly for the fox, and then the clouds rolled back in.

Red Fox Vole Snatcher

Snowy Owl Vole Snatcher

Using a Thermal Monocular for Birding

Year 13

I finally bought a Thermal Monocular for Birding, which was a BIG purchase for me … spending $900 US. My monocular is supposed to arrive today. I will update this post with links to subsequent posts giving my impressions of the technology as I move from novice to expert (?) with the monocular.

This purchase was extremely unusual for me. For camera equipment I do NOT own costly expensive long lenses. My purchase was a Rix Pocket K3 with a native resolution of 384 x 288 thermal sensor.  This resolution is one step up from the more basic 256 x 192 thermal sensors. Please note this monocular tends to often be out of stock … Amazon link.

Updates to my Rix Pocket K3 Thermal Monocular Review will posted immediately below:

  • This post is the first post in this series (02/08/2026)
  • Second Post – Thermal Monocular Birding Review (02/19/2026):

As always I bought my thermal with my own money, received zero discounts from manufacturers because of this blog, nor do I have any sponsored links.

I also appreciated watching this video from “Of Human and Nature” on YouTube (video link for email blog subscribers)