It's been about a month since I blogged. Time sure does fly! I had a shift change for a week, which turned things upside down for me, then a couple weeks of vacation and back to work this past week which meant getting back into routines and here I am some weeks later.
I am working on a catch up blog, one of my famous things to do, just throwing tons of bits and pieces at yas about all the animals around me. But until I get that done, later this week, offering you a quickie. Who doesn't like a quickie?
Okay, stopping the quickie bits before I fall into the gutter with my blue collar humor. LoL!
This past Monday, dreading returning to work, not that I hate work, but hated the end of our vacation, I had to run an errand and as I got ready to go out for a bit, I felt something. It was a calling sort of. Something told me to visit a certain park very close to our home and a certain bird was coming to mind loud and clear. I'm not one to pass on such a vibe. I occasionally get that with animals and a couple times I can recall the vibe with lottery tickets, never picking a big winner, but a $3 ticket purchase giving me $25 as an example. Ya, maybe I am a bit weird, but aren't we all in our own way? I just don't always choose to hide it.
So, errand done, off I went to this park. What bird was in my mind? A Great Horned Owl. I've seen this bird in the park before, and usually chance upon it on average 3 times a year over the last 4 years. Although I went over a year and a half between sightings, not seeing it in 2014 at all.
I arrive at the park, get out of the truck and to the west was a Crow squawking his head off flying south. Now they are pretty vocal birds most of the times but they do lead me to Barred and Great Horned Owls on occasion. I took it as a sign that my vibe was not pulling my leg.
Anytime I have seen this Owl, it's always been in the same tree and on the same branch. I make my way there first and no Owl is to be seen. Okay, time to start looking.
I do visit this park much more than 3x a year, just so you know. And whenever I do, I do keep my eyes and ears open for this bird.
A few squawky Blue Jays are near, flying back and forth. Another very vocal bird but they too lead me to Owls. I had 3 Jays kick a Long-eared Owl out of a cedar near me one morning at another local park. I tell people to tune into the birds, they can tell and show you things you might otherwise miss.
Next, a flash of bright orange goes over my head... a Baltimore Oriole! And he's quite agitated too.
I look up and ahead of me a bit and this is what I saw.
Ah, there she is.
And she is taking a beating from the above mentioned Blue Jays and this male Oriole. The Crow did not return. She now has me to deal with as well. Not that I am going to do anything, but she doesn't know that.
I was quite thrilled to see her again. I did not notice she had something in her talons at first.
The Jays continued to pester her. Spot the Jay?
It was a very overcast morning, so the shots aren't great, overblown in some, too dark in others, but I managed to get some to tell of this brief moment.
I took a long way around the bird so I could try and view her from her front, and maybe see what she was having for breakfast. It was a bird. But what kind?
Super crop here of the meal.
At first I thought Starling but the tail wasn't right in my mind. Then I thought Grackle because it was dark, the tail seemed to fit, but the legs weren't right. I started to think Pigeon because of those legs but that seemed absurd to me. A friend of ours, an expert with bird ID's, confirmed it indeed was a Pigeon!
Another angle with the Owl before I left it. She was still getting a lot of grief from other birds.
It was a very cool sighting to me. Never have I seen a GHOW with it's kill. They are always just sitting high up, looking around, or napping. But to me, I find it an odd meal to have. I don't put these big Owls and birds together. Plus, regardless that Great Horns are about Toronto, they still remain woodland birds (so I think) and Pigeons are city birds. I never see Great Horns outside of the woods like I never see Pigeons in the woods. What do you think?
This spot is very near our home. Pierre and his flock have to cross slightly east of this part of the park to get to us. Another thing they need to be wary of?
Well, I hope you enjoyed my sighting here almost as much as I did.
No comments:
Post a Comment