A Michigan Owl for Mom

My mom raised me to be a night owl. She and I would often visit late at night as she would be doing laundry or when I returned home from a night out as a teenager. We were in the midst of continuing that tradition this past Thursday while I was visiting her home in Battle Creek, Michigan. We were talking about my interest in wildlife photography when she told me she wanted to see a "Michigan" owl in my online photos. Well, the night was still young at 11:30 so with her encouragement I drove a few blocks to a small cemetery which I had noticed earlier in the day and thought would be good habitat for a Screech-Owl. I was a little sheepish about playing a Screech-Owl call from my phone when I arrived at the cemetery and I realized how close I was to some neighboring homes. I didn't want to draw attention by shining my light into the trees if an owl did call back to me. I had a small window of opportunity so I pressed forward with my attempt to call in an owl. Within a few minutes I heard the distant call of a Screech-Owl. A couple minutes later I saw the silhouette of the owl move across the sky above my head. The owl perched deep inside a tree that was on the other side of the fence that separated the cemetery from private property. The owl called back to me. I moved along the fence line until I found a vantage point that allowed me to put a light on the owl and capture some images.

It's not a bad image, but the owl itself looks a bit worn. I noticed a bare spot revealing skin between the owl's left eye and the bill. The whiskers are missing on that side of the bill.

The only reason I'm sharing the image below is to show the shape of the bill. These owls are between 8 and 9 inches tall and seem harmless in many ways, but when it comes time to eat, and they do eat meat, instinct kicks in and that bill does serious damage to small birds and rodents.

I had a smile on my face when I walked back into mom's home late Thursday night...well, early Friday morning. It was a memorable moment to photograph an Eastern Screech-Owl for the first time with the encouragement of my sweet mother. Thanks for supporting my interest, mom. I hope you enjoy seeing your "Michigan" owl.

Video and Images of Great Basin Rattlesnake

I feel fortunate that, to date, all close encounters with rattlesnakes were preceded by an alert from the snake. Thank goodness their rattles worked as nature intended. The first time I heard one rattling I initially mistook it for some sort of grasshopper or noisy insect. Fortunately, on that occasion, a visual combined with the audible locked the sound of the rattle into my memory.

I recently captured some video of a Great Basin Rattlesnake my friend Eric happened upon while we were doing some photography in a desert area of northern Utah. I thought it might be educational and helpful to those who've never heard a rattlesnake give its warning. I was using my zoom lens to allow me to remain at a safe distance while providing a close observation.

This individual was about two and a half feet long and blended in well with its environment. The image below provides a decent view of four important parts of the snake's anatomy--the tongue, pits, eyes, and rattle.  The eyes, pits, and tongue help the snake detect prey while the tail is used to deter predators so it does not become the prey.  

Great Basin Rattlesnake in Utah County, Utah

The rattle of a rattlesnake starts as a button when the snake is born and a new segment is added to the length of the rattle each time the skin is shed. Shedding can occur multiple times a year. Some snakes lose segments of their rattle in the normal course of living so counting the segments is not a reliable method for determining age.  The sound of a rattle is the result of segments of the rattle rubbing together when the extremely quick-firing tail muscles cause the tail to shake up to 50 times per second. If all, or all but one, of the segments are lost the snake will shake its tail to no avail in terms of sending an effective alert to a perceived predator.

Tail of Great Basin Rattlesnake in Utah County, UT

We Finally Saw-whet! I mean Saw It!

Last Friday evening I led a small group of bird and owl enthusiasts to some of the higher elevations of Utah's Wasatch Mountains.  One out-of-state birder had high hopes of seeing her first Flammulated Owl. That is a small mountain species of owl that many birders from around the United States and other parts of the world want to see when they visit Utah. Flammies, as some affectionately call them, are common for us locally during the spring and summer months because they come from Mexico to breed in our mountains so it is always fun to introduce others to them. One of the local birders who joined our small group had high hopes of seeing a Saw-whet Owl in the wild. I had one of my sons join us and he also had hopes of seeing his first Saw-whet.

Saw-whets are vocal during their breeding season, but they move about more silently in the dark after breeding season slows down. Consequently, this time of year is not ideal for locating Saw-whets. I was very confident we'd locate a Flammulated Owl so I spent most of my efforts locating a Saw-whet during the trip last Friday. We found our first of several Flammulated Owls rather quickly, but the Saw-whets were playing hard to get until our third and final stop and right up until just before we were about to call it a night. Our persistence paid off after we heard an adult give a call and then at least two juveniles calling back to the adult. One juvenile called long enough that I was able to locate it and put a light on it so everyone could enjoy its cute/awesomeness. The little owl was quite accommodating so I decided to capture a few images after others were able to enjoy excellent, close-range views.

Recently-fledged, Juvenile Northern Saw-whet Owl in Utah County, UT USA

Top/Back Side of Recently-fledged, Juvenile Northern Saw-whet Owl in Utah County, UT USA

Here's an image of an adult I found on a solo trip several weeks ago to illustrate how much the plumage changes between the juvenile and adult ages of the species. The branch in the foreground is unfortunate from a photographic perspective, but it's also very natural.

Adult Northern Saw-whet Owl in Utah County, UT USA

Owling the Outskirts of a Tiny Town on Friday the 13th

Great Horned Owl Giving a Hoot

I love looking for owls, especially Northern Saw-whet Owls, near the summit of the Alpine Loop where stretches of road from Utah and Wasatch Counties rise to meet at nearly 8000 feet. The roads that allow access to the summit are closed during the winter months and generally reopen each sprint around Memorial Day weekend. Consequently, I've been left only to dream of what the Saw-whet Owls are doing up there in the early spring months as their breeding season goes into full swing. Recently I was told there was a way to drive my truck up into that area from the Wasatch County side. The Utah winter has been extremely mild with very little snow so I decided to give it a shot last night with my friend Eric Peterson. Eric and I most recently had owling success during our Presidents' Day weekend excursion to Southeast Arizona. You can read about and see images from that fun-filled weekend trip in my most recent blog posts.

Last night we enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Provo Canyon and Deer Creek Reservoir back-dropped by the majestic snow-capped peaks of Mount Timpanogos as we made a 40-minute drive from our homes in Utah County to Heber Valley in Wasatch County. I asked Eric if he'd be interested in checking for Great Horned Owls along the way. He was certainly interested so we made a stop on the outskirts of the small town of Midway, Utah where I'd located a Great Horned Owl roost a few years before.

We employed some simple owling techniques to locate not one but two Great Horned Owls. We suspect they are a breeding pair. We searched below some dense conifers for evidence of an active roost. We discovered pellets, remains of prey, and feathers. The ground below one particular tree was littered with pellets. I wondered what DNA might be found in those pellets. No doubt bits of mammals we in them.

Although we had loads of evidence pointing to one particular tree it was the call of a male we heard from another tree that let us know for sure we were on the trail to a Great Horned Owl. Eric located a pair of rabbit ears that certainly wouldn't help any TV get better reception.

These owls are meat eaters and rabbits provide lots of meat, especially for a nest of hungry little owlets. Apparently even these dominant owls experience threats from nature. The feathers below appear to be Great Horned Owl feathers that were aggressively removed since several are stuck together at the base. It's possible they belong to another species of bird that became prey to the owls, but they appear to match Great Horned Owl feathers as far as I can tell. The natural process of molting would result in individual rather than batches of feathers being lost.

Once we heard the male calling just before the sun was going down we moved in its direction. It was coming from an evergreen that was very tall and heavily covered. I've put the owl dead center in the cropped image below to make it easier to see while also providing a since of how deeply hidden the owl was in the tree.

Here's another image from a slightly different angle that is more heavily cropped for a closer view.

The owl flew from the tree and over our heads. The sun had dropped behind the mountains so the lighting was very poor, but I managed to lighten up the image below to show some of the detail of the owl. The owl was merely a dark silhouette straight out of the camera so I'm pleased with how digital technology allowed me to reveal the hidden details of the original image.

We heard the female engage in the calling at one point so we think we know where she is on a well-hidden nest, but it was the male that put on a show for us as he flew from one perch to another.

I did my best to hold the lens still as I attempted to capture two short video and audio clips of the owl hooting. I had my tripod/monopod in the truck and it would have improved the steadiness of the video, but I opted to go handheld since we were quickly losing light. Be sure to watch the video in HD for the best image quality.

Our last look at the owl before we resumed our drive into the mountains for the Saw-whets was a silhouette high atop a distant tree. What looks like a tiny owl from this perspective is a bird that is on its way to imposing death and destruction on unsuspecting mammals.

We finally reached the road that was to take us into Saw-whet territory from Soldier Hollow, but it was closed to vehicles. Determined to find our owls, we decided to check another road that would lead to great Saw-whet habitat and made our way there. That road was closed as well. We decided to drive up a third canyon road get into higher elevations. Fortune was on our side with our third option so we pressed onward and upward. The pavement transitioned to mud and rocks and the mud and rocks gave way to snow pack. I engaged the 4WD and pressed forward to where we would find perfect Saw-whet habitat, a mix of conifers and aspens.

We made our first stop and attempted to whistle and call for Saw-whets. We could hear that someone was on the dark and treacherous road ahead of us. There was no way to park on the side of the road due to the narrowness of the road and the deep snow covering the sloping edges so we simply stayed in the middle of the road hoping no one would need to pass us on their way down. Within a few minutes a Saw-whet responded to us and a tiny dark figure flew right by our heads. It landed in a short aspen on the side of the road and began interacting with us. Moments later it moved to a conifer where it posed for some photos. I never get tired of seeing these 8-inches-tall carnivores.

As we were photographing the owl a man with a shovel came walking up the road. He'd parked his truck below where the snow pack began and was on his way up to help dig his son's truck from the snow. Apparently the people we heard above us were stuck. We offered help and then decided we'd back the truck down from our location rather than attempt to go forward. We found a place to do about an 8-point turn. Eric guided me from outside the truck to make sure I didn't get too close to the edge of a drop off and deeper snow. Once we completed that careful maneuver we began a slow decent to another spot that appeared ideal for Saw-whets. We hit another jackpot at our second stop with our second Saw-whet of the evening. We were now three for three on owling targets for the evening.  The second Saw-whet allowed us to watch and listen to it call for several minutes before we decided to continue our way down from the mountain.

About sixty minutes and a late-night, semi-decent, fast food combo meal later we were back to our homes from a memorable evening with owls on the outskirts of a tiny town called Midway.