Just Now

 Turkey In the Straw. Hay, actually.

Cool Cranes on the Beach

 

Sunday Hunt

Our Black and Blue car in the driveway, after a duck hunt with Sibley and Nico. The ducks were safe, and coots, too.

Today

 

Bitterroot Bald Eagle

 

I Wonder What Kind of Bird THIS Is?

 Yellowlegs! But wonder if it's a Greater or Lesser?

Spooky!

Jillian's first program, back in 2003 at an elementary school in Hamilton, MT. After the assembly, she was a model in a drawing class for 3rd graders. A natural, and joining me for a TEDx Talk in 2015, on YouTube.

 

Jake the Peregrine Update

 Kit Lacy, Bird Curator at Cascades Raptor Center in Eugene, Oregon just gave us a Little Jake update and included a few photos. If you remember, Jake was given to our friends at Cascades when we found he had some health issues and wouldn't be trained for falconry. They tended to a sore foot for months and now he has completely healed, and check out his new digs, 12' x 12', the center of attention. Kit wrote, "As would be expected people are just loving being able to get up close to him and watch him. He plays all day long. He has fallen in love with these canvas fish toys that he carries around his space all day long. Yesterday, I heard two different sets of guests say as they were leaving, “let’s go and say goodbye to Jake before we leave.” What a fan favorite." 

Irony

 This latest story has been ironic in a couple of ways. I had installed a photo in the new book Falcons of North America 2nd Edition of a wild Peregrine up the Blackfoot carrying this quarry with the caption:

A Peregrine carries a partially eaten American Coot, a wonder how they catch 

these aquatic birds that rarely fly and seem to completely disappear underwater to escape.

Then Sib caught one that was flying! Going to change the caption...

 

Sunday Hunt

Yesterday we were duck hunting watching a big raft of American Coots cruising back and forth when one actually flew. Members of the rail family, they are awkward fliers and prefer to run across and disappear underwater. I said out loud, "Wow, that's something you never see." Right then another one flew the other direction and Sibley took off in hunting mode. I wasn't sure what happened but she disappeared for 15 minutes, and Nico (and the telemetry receiver) located her way under the snow at the base of a big willow bush. A coot! And I had to break several limbs off to extract her, buried and plucking away and I would never have found her without help. Nope, never caught a coot before, and she got to eat most of it as a treat. Not for human consumption, apparently, with a hunting daily bag limit of 25! 

Aspens in the Snow Today

 

Saturday and More Snow on the Way

 

Autumn, Then Winter, in One Day!

 

Aspens 2020