Anyone who follows my blog knows I adore Burrowing Owls, I am totally fascinated by these small “Clowns of the Desert” and could spend hours & hours watching and photographing them.
Last week while taking a quick look at a burrow I have been watching I noticed several chicks above the ground and one adult that was perched high up on a dried out sunflower stalk way off in the distance. I took a few quick shots of the adult and I am glad I did because with my naked eye I couldn’t see that someone has banded the adult and it appears that a telemetry device has also been attached to the adult. You might wonder why.
Adult Burrowing Owl
Western Burrowing Owls populations are declining, human population explosion and subsequent urban development plus habitat degradation has reduced Burrowing Owl populations by 60% and that number is still rising. Burrowing Owls are a Species of Concern in Utah and we should be concerned if we want to stop their population decline.
Adult and juvenile Burrowing Owl
The reason for the bands on the Burrowing Owls on Antelope Island is research on their populations and the telemetry device will be used to track their migration.
As a bird photographer I’m not exactly thrilled about the “bling” the owls are wearing but as a person concerned about their conservation and their future I do understand why the research is needed.
For facts on Western Burrowing Owls take a look at these sites:
I saw several Tyrant Flycatchers on my last trip to Montana, Eastern and Western Kingbirds and a couple of Western Wood-pewees that were hawking from fence posts and barbed wire along a gravel road. I haven’t photographed many Western Wood-pewees so I was interested in their aerial forays after the insects as I watched and photographed them through my viewfinder. These small birds flew off their perches rapidly to go after prey and were difficult to track in flight.
I hope to have more opportunities with Western Wood-pewees soon.
Mia
* I am on the road again, please feel free to share this post.
Yesterday my post focused on female Mountain Bluebirds and today I am presenting males in honor of Father’s Day. I was blessed to have two fathers, one who died when I was very young and later 0n my second Dad came into my life. Both of them are deeply missed, especially on this day.
Mountain Bluebird males help the female feed their nestlings and they are great providers, that is if you like insects, spiders and caterpillars! This male Mountain Bluebird was photographed in Montana, the breeze was blowing hard that day and for a few seconds he struggled to keep his balance on his perch. I guess some human dads struggle to stay on the pedestals we as children place them on too.
Male Mountain Bluebird with prey for its nestlings
Mountain Bluebirds hover at times like American Kestrels do when they are hunting. They must have great eyesight to see small insects and spiders before they dive down to capture them. I think this one caught a spider in the shrubs in a valley in Montana.
Mountain Bluebird male bringing in prey for its young
This male Mountain Bluebird brought in a rather hairy looking caterpillar to the nest box for his young.
Mountain Bluebirds are secondary cavity nesters and the bluebird boxes that have been put up all over the country has helped the bluebirds return from serious declines in previous decades.
Thanks to Neil Paprocki of WildLensInc.org I found out about “The Bluebird Man“; Al Larson, who has been putting up Bluebird nest boxes and monitoring them since 1978 and he has banded and astonishing 27,000 plus bluebirds in Idaho and who is continuing to monitor them at 91 years of age. In the near future I will do another post on this fascinating man and the movie that WildLensInc.org is producing about Al Larson, bluebirds and other secondary cavity nesters.
Beautiful blue Mountain Bluebird
This male Mountain Bluebird was photographed in Fremont County, Idaho not far from Henry’s Lake and Island Park. The blue of these males outshines sapphires!
I wish every dad who reads my blog a Happy Father’s Day!
Mia
*I am on the road again, you might think I am trying very hard to not let moss grow under my feet and you would be correct! Please feel free to share my posts with your family and friends.
Mountain Bluebird female with prey for her young – Nikon D300, f7.1, 1/1600, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited
There were Mountain Bluebirds everywhere I looked on my recent trip to Montana where flashes of their brilliant blue plumage were a delight to my eyes. Mountain Blue birds are secondary cavity nesters which means they don’t create their own cavities but do use the cavities that other birds create, for instance Woodpeckers create their own cavities and bluebirds can use them later. Mountain Bluebirds have made a comeback since people started placing nest boxes in areas where they breed.
Female Mountain Bluebird on barbed wire - Nikon D300, f6.3, 1/640, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited
Mountain Bluebirds inhabit grasslands, open canyons, and alpine meadows in western North America. These females are more subtly colored than their male counterparts but I find that subtlety very appealing.
Both sexes were very busy bringing insects to their young in the nest boxes on my recent trip north, by now perhaps some of the chicks will have already fledged. Last year there was a late snow in the Centennial that caused mortality for the chicks of the earlier nesters, hopefully this year there will be far more flashes of blue in the Big Sky of western Montana!
Yellow-bellied Marmot crossing a dirt track – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1/320, ISO 640, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 300mm, natural light
Yellow-bellied Marmots are the western cousins of Groundhogs but unlike Groundhogs (Woodchucks) they aren’t fabled critters that can predict spring and I am okay with that because spring gets here when it gets here. I did learn why Yellow-bellied Marmots got the nickname “Whistle Pig” when we first came upon the two marmots in this area because one let out a sharp alarm whistle. This marmot crossed the dirt track to get to the other side where I thought it would disappear into the sagebrush and rocks.
Check out my toothy grin - Nikon D300, f6.3, 1/320, ISO 640, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 300mm, natural light
Yellow-bellied Marmots are also called “Rock Chucks” though it is not because they can chuck rocks, it may be because they like rocky steppes, high meadows and talus slopes or it may come from the fact that they typically dig their burrows near and under rocks to avoid predators such as wolves, coyotes, foxes, dogs and sadly humans too.
The marmot didn’t disappear into the rocks like I thought it would instead it stopped and nibbled on some grass. I didn’t realize until I got back home and viewed this image on my monitor that I had caught the marmot with its mouth open showing its very long teeth.
See my yellow belly? - Nikon D300, f6.3, 1/320, ISO 640, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 300mm, natural light
I wish I didn’t have the light colored dirt track on the left side of these frames and that the marmot had continued moving a little further into the grass. I also wish the light had been falling on the front of the marmot instead of behind it but the clouds overhead did help with the exposure for these images.
I wanted to take a short break from the birds I photographed in Montana and present at least one of the mammals I saw there too.
Banded Burrowing Owl adult with telemetry device?
Adult Burrowing Owl
Adult and juvenile Burrowing Owl
