Urban Hawks

January 7, 2008December 21, 2020Owls

More Eastern Screech-Owl Photographs…

Eastern Screech-Owl photographs from Monday evening.

January 5, 2008December 21, 2020Owls

Eastern Screech-Owls In The New Year

I can’t say much about these two, or I would give away their location. But they’re a cute couple, who are staying in separate roosts in the same tree.

January 1, 2008December 23, 2020Other Red-tailed Hawks

Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk Eats A Squirrel

On New Year’s Day, I got to watch a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk eat a squirrel just east of Bethesda Fountain. These photos are not for the squeamish. Skip to another post, if you’d rather not see these images.

The squirrel was quite large and the Red-tail had a hard time flying with it and keeping it balanced.

December 25, 2007December 21, 2020Owls

Where’s LEO?

On Christmas Eve day, we had three Long-eared Owls in their favorite tree. But on Christmas day, I could only see two. Where’s LEO number 3?

The most visible of the two on Christmas day.

December 24, 2007December 21, 2020Owls

Eastern Screech-Owls on Christmas Eve

I watched an Eastern Screech-Owls fly out on Christmas Eve.

This one stayed asleep for the longest time.

Then after being awake for a few minutes.

It’s amazing how owls change shape. Look at this photo and the one above it. See how the feathers puff out to create what looks like a chin.

Always a look right and a look left before fly out.

Then very quickly the other owl appears.

I couldn’t photograph them, but we had two copulations tonight.

The owls scoped out their old cavity from last year. This one watched as the other one went in.

They stayed around but it was cold, so we left before they did. A rare event.

December 17, 2007December 21, 2020Other Red-tailed Hawks, Owls

Hawk and Owl

Today, I saw a hawk and an owl.

I started out doing a sweep around the pair of Eastern Screech-Owls, where we’ve lost track of one of the owl’s daytime roosts. I started out at a tree I thought was a likely candidate, and heard two crying squirrels. I looked around and saw a first-year juvenile Red-tailed Hawk finishing up a meal. The prey had already been well eaten at this point, so I couldn’t figure out what was for dinner.

I went down to the regular cavity and there was no sign of an Eastern Screech-Owl until quite late. There was this first glimpse at 4:42.

A real look didn’t occur until almost 5:00 p.m. I don’t know if it was the extra light from the reflection off the icy snow or the cool temperatures that delayed the fly out.