Around the park and ponds across the road

[pontiac1940]

Had a some nice photo ops the past three days. A few were added to my gallery. Notes with each photo. 

Mom great horned owl catching some early morning rays. She is just 1 or 2 meters from her nest that contains three owlets. (See Today's Picture.) 


Every April, a few dozen white pelicans stop at our ponds on their way to breeding grounds. There were about 26 last evening, about 40 this morning and none here by 3 PM. A few stay in the area all summer. They are normally very skittish. Last evening I was hunkered down in my "blind" and several came quite close in killer evening light. (My blind? 2016 Nissan Rogue parked on a ramp at one of the ponds. )  




Red-winged blackbird

[jackscrap]

Excellent results Clive, the mother owl is so beautiful.
Your white pelicans are so different to the ones in Australia, fantastic lighting, right place, right time.

[pontiac1940]

Apr 24, 2023 1:39:03 GMT jackscrap said:

Excellent results Clive, the mother owl is so beautiful.
Your white pelicans are so different to the ones in Australia, fantastic lighting, right place, right time.

Thanks Jacki. Was lovely late-day light and the birds were cooperative. Your pelicans have big eyes as I recall. 
The amazing thing about these huge birds is how gracefully they fly. 

[BuckSkin]

Clear and quite brisk here last night = 37°

An Owl sitting atop our steel flue/smokestack woke me up about 1:AM and constantly "hooted" for about an hour and a half.

I hadn't heard an Owl around here in ages until a few nights ago when I bet there were a dozen scattered around within hearing.

These and the one last night weren't the Whoo Whoo Whoo-are-you Owls; I really don't know how to describe the racket they make.

I hope they hang around.

[pontiac1940]

Apr 24, 2023 2:18:48 GMT BuckSkin said:

I hope they hang around.

They are cool to have around. Hope so for you! 
And they eat pails of mice. 
 

[cats4jan]

The White Pelicans have decided to visit Florida for the summer. For the last 7 or so years, they have made the pond behind my house their summer home. Although the brown pelicans are a staple of Florida, I had never seen white ones until they showed up in my backyard.

[kdcintx]

American White Pelicans migrated through North Texas in February. Stayed about 2 weeks. I was surprised at how big they are.

i.ibb.co/fHRRRRJ/pelican.jpg

[Jim]

Apr 24, 2023 1:06:52 GMT pontiac1940 said:

Had a some nice photo ops the past three days. A few were added to my gallery. Notes with each photo. 

Beautiful shots, Clive. Interesting info also.

[pontiac1940]

Apr 24, 2023 20:57:34 GMT kdcintx said:

I was surprised at how big they are.

They are huge! Yet fly so gracefully. 

[pontiac1940]

Apr 24, 2023 22:02:58 GMT Jim said:

Beautiful shots, Clive. Interesting info also.

Thanks Jim. 

[tourerjim]

Very nice...👍

[BuckSkin]

Apr 24, 2023 2:28:06 GMT pontiac1940 said:

Apr 24, 2023 2:18:48 GMT BuckSkin said:

I hope they hang around.

They are cool to have around. Hope so for you! 
And they eat pails of mice.  :)
 

Well, I hunted me up some YouTube videos and listened to bunches of owl sounds; and, to my ear, the closest to what I heard both times, the one on our roof and the dozen or more in the distance a few nights before, is the Great Barred Owl; some sources just call it a Barred Owl.

I need to get my little sidekick practiced up on her hoot-owl call and see if she can mimic their call and then call up a big owl gathering.

I thought about going to the pet snake store and buying a couple hundred mice to turn out (for when the herd of owls gather); however, just recently, a 37-yr-old local woman was feeding a mouse to her pet snake; the mouse bit her; and, she got sick from the mouse bite and died deader than a doornail -- over a mouse bite.

[pontiac1940]

Apr 26, 2023 2:22:08 GMT BuckSkin said:

the closest to what I heard both times, the one on our roof and the dozen or more in the distance a few nights before, is the Great Barred Owl; some sources just call it a Barred Owl.

Barred owls are sure pretty. They are in Alberta but not out here in the plains. 
If you have a cellphone download an app called Merlin. Here. It is amazing. You can upload a photo for ID but the neatest feature is the "sounds ID." Once  turned on it starts to "listen" to bird sounds and provides a running list of all the species it hears. It is very cool.