Sib and Bald Eagle

Sibley was way across a field today in a snow squall, spotted this Bald Eagle and flew around to chase it from behind for a while. Neither seemed to care and it looked like just in play. The eagle barely looked back, a pesky little falcon with a bell on one leg.

Hooded Merganser!

Yesterday:

Front Page News

Our friend Perry Backus wrote this great story about iPod, and what a headline, On a wing and a tail!
Check it out:

The Whole Gang

Christmas Critters

Today at One Horse Creek. Merry Christmas!

Have a Happy

Frontier Airline's Ferndale Airbus!

I was literally leaving the house this afternoon to do our Montana Public Radio program when this showed up! iPod on 19 planes for now and 100 more soon - Press release:

DENVER – Frontier Airlines added a new Airbus A321 to its fleet this week featuring a Northern Pygmy-Owl named Ferndale on the aircraft’s tail. Frontier received this fourth A321, part of an order of 19 total aircraft, earlier this week.

University of Montana Alumni Kate Davis, founder and director of Raptors of the Rockies, said, “Being an aeronautics enthusiast myself, this is the greatest tribute to our tiny predator iPod - to be honored in a 20 foot tall painting on an aircraft tail!”

Ferndale joins 60 other animal tails featured in the airline’s fleet. Ferndale the Northern Pygmy-Owl is inspired by Raptors of the Rockies own iPod the Pygmy-Owl who is used in educational speaking engagements about Raptors in the Northern Rockies region and named after Ferndale, an area where the Northern Pygmy-Owl can be found in Montana. The Northern Pygmy-Owl can also be found in areas of Western Colorado, the home state of Frontier Airlines, as well as other parts in the Western U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Montana Public Radio tomorrow

Wait until you hear this story tomorrow on Pea Green Boat, Montana Public Radio! We always finish up the year with a guest appearance by Sibley the Peregrine and ringing her bells over the airwaves. But tomorrow an amazing story about our Northern Pygmy-Owl, iPod and his part in the new fleet of Frontier Airlines' largest new aircrafts. He was the guest for a program at CEO's home Bill Franke in Ferndale along with three other Teaching Team birds, and inspired this original line of airplanes because Pygmy-Owls are the greatest predators out there, pound for pound or gram for gram.
What a story - iPod appears on the tail section of the new jetliners! (Not this photo, promise.)
Streaming live on  http://mtpr.org  from 4-5 pm or left of the dial on FM.

Funday

Sunday was gorgeous and sunny, and every Northern Harrier in the valley must have been having a convention. They were everywhere when Jay and I were flying our Peregrines, even on the attack mode which I haven't seen very often. We also spotted this Great Horned Owl on a old deer blind up in a tree, and here is one of the half dozen Bald Eagles that were hanging with the harriers. Still fun to "take the hawks for a walk."

Flash From the Past

I was at the Florence Post Office today on my way to fly Sibley, accompanied by the dogs in the Subaru. When I came back outside, the UPS truck was parked next to me with the driver staring in the car window. He asked, "Is that a hawk in there?" and told him that it's a falcon. Without missing a beat he asked, "Do you still have that eagle?" It turns out Roy had seen an assembly at Hellgate Elementary School when he was in third grade, so I informed him that Max is 26 years old now. Roy thanked me for sticking with it, an experience at the school he promised he would never forget. Here's Max about 20 years ago, and sure made my day, and perhaps year!

Food

We have an ever-growing flock of House Sparrows living in three bushes in the yard and under the eves of the garage. Funny thing, their favorite hangout is the bush in front of Sibley's enclosure and more than one has made the mistake of slipping through the wire to be devoured by a falcon. What a way to go. I have accidentally spilled some bird seed here in the driveway in hopes a Merlin or Sharpshin might show up. House Sparrows = non-native bird = food.

Snowing in the 'Root

I was "shooting" the Peregrine in the snow today looking for a Christmas card photo to post next week. And below - yesterday's teamwork! Sib and Mookie (digging up a vole no doubt.)

Across the Street Today

Completely missed some pheasants, oh well.

Raptor Round-Up #49

Here it is and just in time, thanks Webmaster Steve Palmer for posting. I got about 100 in the mail today  and the rest tomorrow, but see it here first in living color:
http://www.raptorsoftherockies.org/main.asp?id=newsletter

Sunday

Jay's formally-wayward falcon after the ducks:

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Omnipresent Eagles

The Bald Eagles seem to be by their nest nearly all the time lately, a photo from the deck the other morning at dawn-ish.  If we can't spot them from the house, we hear them all day. That's the nest tree and I've seen some others perching on the favorite snag nearby. Working on the new Raptor Round-Up Newsletter and hopefully in your mailboxes late next week, and on the web. Of course jazz on the stereo and lots of Mekons and James CD's (rock!)

Tomorrow -First Friday!

Check out my new photography exhibition at Blacksmith Brewing in downtown Stevensville tomorrow! Here are all new (mostly) photos and all taken (mostly) within ten miles of the brewery. I'll be there for First Friday and the show will be up all month. See you there, and it will be quite the evening with a parade and extravaganza on Main Street.

Just Before Those Shots...

...Were these. Again, click on the images and check out that second one!

Theft Above

Yesterday when I was walking into the house with the camera and falconry gear I saw a battle high up and in the distance. The photos revealed the adult Bald Eagle stealing something from the younger one!  Thieves, I tell you, looks like a not-quite-fully-mature adult with a dark tip on his tail - probably four years old and not one of "ours" from the back yard.
Click on the photo to see the sequence: