Great Horned Owl - Bubo virginianus
For this past week there has been a Great Horned Owl in our area! WOW!!! I've never seen one here before! We first saw it fly across the river and back one morning! It flew too quickly to figure out what kind of owl it was. Then two days later in the mid-afternoon it flew ahead of us and perched in a tree! That's when I saw that it was a Great Horned Owl! The wingspan seemed huge. I have since read that it can be up to 44", almost four and half feet wide! They are 22" in length, and weigh 3.1 lb. These owls are mainly nocturnal and not commonly seen during the day! I think it's out during the day right now because there are so many squirrels gathering food for the winter. We were so lucky to see it! Sure hope it sticks around!
Great Horned Owls are the top avian, nocturnal predator in North America! They are "perch and pounce" hunters. Ninety percent of their diet consists of mammals, such as mice, voles, ground squirrels, rats, gophers, hares, raccoons, rabbits, porcupines, skunks, carrion, and sometimes house cats! They can carry up to three times their weight, or approximately 9 lbs! Ten percent of their diet consists of birds including owls, raptors, waterfowl (even herons!), starlings, pigeons and nestlings. They will also occasionally eat reptiles, amphibians, and insects. They are found year-round across Alaska, Canada, the U.S., Mexico, and Costa Rica.
Great Horned Owl - Bubo virginianus
Great Horned Owls are usually solitary except during breeding season, which is in winter. Egg laying occurs as early as January! They do not build their own nests, but rather occupy large, abandoned, raptor nests. Their "horns" are technically called "plumicorns" and are neither horns nor ears, just elongated feather tufts. Scientists haven't figured out the purpose of these tufts, but suggest that they may aid in camouflage, or in the identification of an owl by its mate.
Osprey - Red-tailed Hawk
Pandion haliaetus - Buteo jamaicensis
I also saw the juvenile Osprey on the river this week, and an adult Red-tailed Hawk flying away with a dead squirrel in its claws! WOW!!! In comparison to the Great Horned Owl, the Osprey has a wingspan of 63", a length of 21", and weighs 2.2 lb. The Red-tailed Hawk has a wingspan of 49", a length of 19", and weighs 2.4 lb. So wonderful to see these beautiful raptors! The following quote about raptors is from One Long River of Song by Brian Doyle, one of my absolutely favorite authors. Enjoy!
part of "Raptorous"
by Brian Doyle
"I have been so hawk-addled and owl-absorbed and falcon-haunted and eagle-maniacal since I was a little kid that it was a huge shock to me to discover that there were people who did not think that seeing a sparrow hawk helicoptering over an empty lot and then dropping like an anvil and o my god coming up with wriggling lunch was the coolest thing ever. I mean, who could possibly not be awed by a tribe whose various members can see a rabbit clearly from a mile away (eagles), fly sideways through tree branches like feathered fighter jets (woodhawks), look like tiny brightly colored linebackers (kestrels, with their cool gray helmets), hunt absolutely silently on the wing (owls), fly faster than any other being on earth (falcons), and can spot a trout from fifty feet in the air, gauge piscine speed and direction, and nail the dive and light-refraction and wind-gust and trout-startle so perfectly that it snags three fish a day (our friend the osprey)? Not to mention they look cool, they are seriously large, they have muscles on their muscles, they are stone-cold efficient hunters with built-in butchery tools, and all of them have this stern I could kick your ass but I'm busy look, which took me years to discover was not a general simmer of surliness but a result of the supraorbital ridge protecting their eyes.
And they are more adamant than other birds. They arrest your attention. You see a hawk and you stop what minor crime you are committing and pay close attention to a craft master who commands the horizon until he or she is done and drifts airily away, terrifying the underbrush. You see an eagle, you gape; you hear the piercing whistle of an osprey along the river, you stand motionless and listen with reverence; you see an owl launch at dusk, like a burly gray dream against the last light, you flinch a little, and are awed, and count yourself blessed."
Stormy view looking south above Mud Lake
A Fall Day in the Lakes Basin
On Thursday, my friend Diane and I hiked all day in the Lakes Basin. It was a beautifully dramatic, dark-cloud, rainy day! The Fall colors were gorgeous! We were blissed out! Enjoy this glimpse of the beauty! Better yet, get out there yourself!
Bracken Fern - Bog Asphodel & Grasses - Quaking Aspen
Pteridium aquilinum var. pubescens - Narthecium californicum - Populus tremuloides
Fall Pond Splendor!
Alpine Knotweed - Little Leaf Maple - Big Leaf Maple & Red Osier Dogwood
Aconogonon phytolaccifolium - Acer glabrum - Acer macrophyllum & Cornus sericea
Bracken Fern - Pteridium aquilinum var. pubescens
Long Lake view looking east
North Yuba River - 10/08/21
Damp Earth Art
On Thursday it rained most of the day, for a total of .19" in our neighborhood. Everything was damp and moist again! Yahoo! Up in the Lakes Basin it rained .75" to 1", depending on the location!!! We are SO grateful! Drying winds are in the forecast for next week. Hope no new fires happen. I am so grateful that there aren't any fires in our immediate area. My heart goes out to those who have lost their homes in this unprecedented fire season. My unending thanks go to the fire fighters who continue to battle these dangerous fires every day.
I so wish it would rain! We can't do anything about the drought, the wind, hot temperatures and fires. Worry makes it harder to bear. So anytime I think of it, I think rain, rain, rain. My intention is to focus on the need for rain, and through collective positive energy invoke rain to fall. It is just a wish, a thought, and a hope. I've created a blog, dampearthart.blogspot.com where I post photographs, quotes, and artworks that feature rain.
What's happening with the Deer and Bear?
How is the fundraising for the Wildlife Disaster Network going?
Check back next week for the answers to these questions and more.
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Your questions and comments are greatly appreciated. Please feel free to email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com. Thanks!
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