A snapshot today of the Falconhouse, our home and the warehouse of the neighbor's in the backdrop. Hopefully won't get 100 degrees in the new building any longer and have to move Sibley inside every afternoon, but we shall see. No shade and planted little pine trees all around that will help. Eventually.
The new 2026 Raptors of the Rockies Calendar and this will be the cover. Twelve months of photos, other birds and mammals this time! Burrowing owl mother and youngsters that nested in an old badger den, the Sapphire Mountains near-by.
How many photos of this bird do you need, Kate? Apparently dozens and a few more today, love this gal.
My artist friend Deborah Mitchell gave me this when I first started printmaking in 1989 and it hangs in the studio! Yep, that was an old pick-up line, remember?
Yep. Had to buy a new computer (Mac mini) and monitor (Samsung Odessy OLED) after a terrifying day thinking I had lost everything on the 8 year-old iMac. We have TimeMachine, but whatever. So thanks to these suggestions of new systems and installation help from Fletcher at The Computer Guys in Missoula, back at it...mostly. Hopefully good for another 8 years now. And young Common Mergansers just now, a flotilla in all. They must fly upstream to float this stretch every day, 15 of them.
Just finished this one, a drypoint etching and this time decided to paint the whole thing rather than roll in printing inks for the background. Instead used water soluble pastels, pencils and gouache paint. 12 x 16"
Spirit At Play Early Childhood Program in Missoula, our first visit in 15 years or so! We talked about what a raptor eats and decided meat, and when I asked the kids what a falcon like Sibley here would fly down out of the sky to grab, they told me meat!
Great kids and wait till you see the thank-you cards tomorrow -OWLS
Non-native Eastern Fox Squirrels lived and raised young in the Bald Eagle Nest as well, lower right. They would dive for cover when an adult showed up, quite often bringing in a fox or Columbian Ground Squirrel. Other prey included birds from starlings and pigeons to ducks and geese, deer (roadkill or prey as I saw the female kill a fawn) and, oh yea, fish.
Here's a fun one, four Bald Eagle chicks in the nest on the Clark Fork River, topic of my book in 2013. At that point only 12 eagle nests ever had that many, and the siblings all got along like pals, parents bringing in everything from pigeons to deer. Do you see the fox squirrel just above the "D" ? They lived in the nest as well, with young!
Rebecca's loving dog Willow and the sign removed from the broken, burned snag, no more nest. "Wildlife Tree-saved for their food and shelter."And below, a Northern Goshawk nest in the Bighole, 2016. Pal Jack Kirkley set up a cool blind but we only fooled the female for a minute or two, then she perched above and stared at me.
I was delighted to accompany Rebecca Mowry with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks to search for some hawk nests yesterday. Two Goshawk and one Cooper's hawk nest were marked with telemetry and we hiked up Larry Creek near Florence to see if they had been occupied this season. Turns out they were in an area burned by the Forest Service to combat a larger fire back in 2017. I was just happy that my bad knee worked as I opted to not have another total knee replacement this year.
Another experiment, this one "Pelican Flotilla." A drypoint etching with water-soluble pastels in the upper background, then run through the press and the damp paper picks up the colors! Took a few tries, then painting with gouache and some colored pencils. Whew. I just ran out of wall space so am having a carpenter cover the windows with drywall. Just kidding. 16" x 12"
Last evening I was turning off the fans in the Falconhouse when both birds started screaming. Right away a wild Peregrine began high speed swoops on the building, circling the yard in attack mode. A big adult female and even the coloration of a "continental" anatum Peregrine, that salmon cast to the ventral feathers. Cool.
Our racing homing pigeons, flying around several times a day. I could take them to your house and they would beat me home. Eight and two babies still in the nest.
I live for jazz and the go-to station is KCSM from San Mateo, CA and Jazz Station to the World. My favorite announcer is Sonny Buxton on Saturdays, and today is his final show, retiring from the station after 28 years. "Pull the Plug Day" he calls it. We named our eagle after him! 60 years total in radio and even TV and love you Sonny. Good luck, and we'll miss you! https://www.kcsm.org/
Three of them. This morning both fledglings were standing on Sonny and Nigel's enclosure fence, discovered by the dogs before I could grab a camera.
The other Bald Eagle fledgling waiting for some nice nutrition to float by, scavenger-fashion. Not very spooky with me and the swimming dogs.
Missoula Community Access Television Kids, and started this Filmmaking Camp with the International Wildlife Film Festival in 1989, today the kids on the beach and at the van, major fun. Thanks MCAT and Scott Ranf! Our birds filmed for fun, all afternoon.
A kestrel has been making the rounds at all of the swallow boxes and have seen him score. This box is right in the yard, a snapshot just now when I was hanging the laundry on the line.
The resident beavers are building another dam under our bridge across the slough, several attempts over the years. One time our dogs ripped the branches out with great relish every trip to the river, for some reason. This is just three days (nights) work! Before Tom built the bridge 23 or so years ago, a beaver dam was our access to the other side, washed out repeatedly.
New one today, drypoint etching called "Red-tail and her Stick" inspired by a hawk I saw last summer, flying high, dropping a little stick and catching it over and over. Playful fun. 12" x 16" with printing inks, gouache and pencils.
No eagles in the nest Tuesday afternoon and one flew over to the pine trees by the pigeon building at 5 pm. So the earliest fledging since I started watching that nest by the house, 2011. This is my favorite shot of the youngsters, taken in 2017!
I love herons, and this one was hunting mammals right next to the road at Metcalf NWRefuge, lucked out. But she didn't and no mice/voles/gophers/ground squirrels for breakfast.
What a nice eagle flight portrait, just kidding. Over the river today and I must say I would much rather butcher chickens for two hours than transplant little trees from the yard to the front of the Falconhouse for shade. Some shade that might work in 10 or 20 years. So unnecessary, neighbor.
With the new neighbor's 80-foot warehouse built up against our fence/enclosures we were forced to move half the birds, including the two Peregrines. The new Falconhouse is cooking in these summer temperatures so forced to make some modifications. First, thermometers, shade cloth, then insulation across the inner roof, fans running all day and even planting relocated trees in the front for shade. Shade? So difficult.
It is always a treat trying to figure out how to color that first run print, and what you can't hear here is the jazz on the stereo!
Just made this drypoint etching, and on the "new" printing press upstairs. "Rough-leg" and printing inks, gouache, pencils 11" x 13". Tried a little background texture with steel brushes, always want to experiment.
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