How To Find An Owl - Lesson 1

I'm beginning to wonder if owls are real birds.Now, I've seen owls as the list below reveals, but for me to go out and FIND owls all by myself, well, it just isn't happening. I'm an owl finding dud.
(I wonder if going out alone, on a Thursday afternoon has anything to do with it. Seems to me Owl Finding would be better on a Saturday night, don'tcha think?)

Anyhow, I've been lamenting my lack of owlness to friend and owl meister Scott Rashid. (Check out Scott's new book, Small Mountain Owls!) He thinks it's quite hilarious that I've only seen one Eastern Screech Owl, (snark!) one Long-eared Owl, (cough!) two Barn Owls, one Pygmy Owl, (snort!) one Flammulated Owl (thank you Carol!) many Great Horned Owls (yeah, yeah) one Western Screech Owl (choke!), one Snowy Owl (not too shabby) and one or two Saw-whet Owls (helping Scott band, so do they REALLY count?) - in my life. In probing further into my lack of owlness, after catching his breath and making a few, um, incredulous and unprintable remarks about my lack of skill in this area, realizing I'm dead serious in wanting some help, I get this by email. My first test!

"How to find an Owl:"These two photos © Scott Rashid
After spending far too much time finding the owls and MAKING SURE of the numbers of owls in the pictures, I sent him my guess and received this reply: "Perfect, I knew you could do it."
(what's YOUR guess?)
In a picture maybe, but how about in real life?
So we went out together not long ago, mainly intent on finding the Snowy Owl that's visiting Colorado, but also to drive though and study habitat, listen to Scott wax eloquent on his owl finding adventures, and get out and look for owls - our main target of the day after the delightful Snowy were Long-eareds. We didn't find any that day, but I did get a good start to understanding owl habitat. And a really nice LOOOOONG walk alongside a very long stand of junipers.
So, generously, Scott took me out for another installment in my "Owlducation". We had heard of Short-eared Owls nearby and went looking for them first. Below are two pictures of prime Short-eared Owl wintering habitat.Nice habitat, but no Short-eareds today. So on we went out east into the Prairie, intent on discovering good Long-eared Owl habitat. Look, here's some.Thick brushy areas surrounded by miles of open prairie. They seem fond of human-planted juniper stands.Especially fond of dense thickets like this one. There are SIX Long-eared Owls in this picture!One..
Two..
This one flew to a cottonwood tree. It's so fascinating to see how well they blend in!

Four.
Is that a lovely intense face or what? A couple of the owls stayed in parts so dense all we could find were hints of their presense. It was such a great experience to spend time with these owls and begin to get a grasp on where they like to be and when.
We soaked up all the owlness we could stand for the moment and softly walked away, leaving them to their dense safe thicket in the prairie.

Little Feeties - Winter's Guessing Game

Little Bitsy Leaping Mouse Tracks

We have had a lot of snow this winter. I mean - I don't think I've seen the grass much except in the last two weeks. Then we get fresh snow on top of old snow. I get it if we're Minnesota, but we're Colorado - you know- the snowed one day (maybe two) then forties the rest of the month state?

Anyhow, enough whining. One thing I love about winter is the little critters with little feet can't be so sneaky about it. Like this little Mouse with a tail that bounded across from patio to feeder. Look here: Bird feetie frenzy - Juncos and Flickers.These little marks were left by our resident fox squirrel. Each set of tracks were spaced over a foot apart. Leaping squirrels.
I think there was a serious clean up crew here - Flickers Foraging For Bits Of Food.
Oh, oh, oh. Who is this now? And why do these tracks (barely the size of a quarter) go from feeder to feeder to feeder to feeder? 'Cause Foxes will eat anything and have a particular fondness for suet nuggets.
I love this - another mass meeting of feeting. Mostly Flicker feet.
The Junco Dance PartyCute little Junco feet and something else.
A Junco on an afternoon walk.And the sweet brush of a wing on the snow.

Winter Mountain Birding

Recently I took a group out for birding for the Fort Collins Audubon Society. The plan was to head to the hills and look for mountain birds. We had 3 cars full of folks - 11 total. One fellow, Eric Defonso, spotted a pair of eagles near Lyons and hollered on the radios we safely turned 3 cars around and had stunning looks at a nice pair of Bald Eagles, one who was enjoying a fish breakfast. Neither eagle paid us any mind.
Photo above by Larry Griffin, used with permission.

Our next main stop was in Ward, Colorado, where a generous couple allows birders to walk by their house and see what we can see. Evening Grosbeaks, Rosy Finches and Pine Grosbeaks were all on the wish list. We dipped on the Evenings and Rosys but were thoroughly entertained by a flock of 25 Pine Grosbeaks. Several members of the group were able to add this bird to their life list.

Photo above by Larry Griffin, used with permission.

Photo above by Larry Griffin, used with permission.

While in Ward, many folks took advantage of the Purple Porta Potty. A landmark in it's own right.

Participants scanning the clear mountain skies for birds.

My little, bitty Pine Grosbeak photo. When I'm leading a trip I focus less on my own photography and more on keeping people on birds and off the roads and such.

We had a tasty and hot lunch at the Meadow Mountain Cafe in Allenspark before visiting the FawnBrook Inn and other nearby homes to check out their feeders. Hairy woodpeckers taking advantage of the suet offered. Steller's Jays and Mountain Chickadees were quite abundant. Rosy Finches were noticibly absent!

A nice surprise for the day was this Northern Shrike, a life bird for several on the trip.

It's SNOWY In Colorado!

Well that's no news, eh? Isn't it always snowy in Colorado in the wintertime? Yes, it is, but not usually this kind of snow, especially on the roof. Can you see it? No?

How about now? YES? For real, there has been a Snowy Owl in a Peyton, Colorado neighborhood now for several weeks. I finally had an opportunity to go see it this week. A friend of mine, Scott Rashid - of Small Mountain Owls and I took the day to go view this lovely bird.

Below is a beautiful photo by my friend Larry Griffin.

Here are a few shots of the bird hovering while facing into the wind, hunting.I had never seen a Snowy Owl in person before, so it was a spectacular life bird experience. Most of the time Snowy Owls are sighted in eastern Colorado, they are never refound.This bird seems quite content in this wide open, prairie, neighborhood, even though people and dogs both were out and about.
Here he is approaching a favorite perch - a microwave wireless internet antenna on a rooftop.As you can see there is no snow cover in this part of the state. Many of us are wondering why the bird is staying here - abundance of food, maybe?I imagine, he'll be winging his way north very soon. In the meantime, he has blessed many people with his large, white, glorious presence.To spend a moment of time with a creature like this - it's a privilege.
Thank you.