Snowy Owl Winthrop

Today while doing some work at Winthrop Beach I noticed a white blob further down the beach. The blob wound up being a Snowy, appeared to be a male bird...very beautiful.

 

The dark coloration near the bill is blood, the owl was eating a Buffle Head (Duck)

                                               Scared off by a dog on the beach, consider following state law when on beaches. In winter wildlife spends alot of energy staying alive, help them out by following rules that are in place.   

Dead Long-eared Owl

Today I found the remains of a Long-eared Owl that had been eaten by another Owl. Likely the winter resident Snowy Owl that predated the LEOW, but also Great Horned Owl is possible. While I have not seen Great Horned Owl in the area, the wooded area where the LEOW was killed seemed good for a GHOL ambush. Either way a sad thing to find, as Long-eared Owls are not a common find.

 Initial kill site, the LEOW was entirely plucked, "white wash" next to the kill consistent with predication from another Owl. The following day I found a pellet containing a leg section of the LEOWs leg bone. The Owl must have returned to feed on the remains, or check on the remains.

                                                 Long-eared Owl talon, the only thing remaining from the Owl

                                                         Primary and secondary feathers

Snowy Owls

Lots of Snowy's around again this year. Perhaps not as many as the last few years, but no problems locating them. Today at work while making my way around Belle Isle this little lady was sitting on the boardwalk. Yesterday 2 Snowy's had a quick battle at the reservation then headed over towards Logan Airport. Belle Isle has alot of squirrels, rabbits, voles, and rats...so with so much prey I think it is a pretty good location to see this beautiful large raptors this winter.

Final Banding stats

So the banding team wound up catching 168 Saw-whets this season. 8 of these birds had already been banded at other sites. The trend of a higher percentage of second year birds being caught continued through the season. If data trends prove correct Kathy thinks that next year will be a boom year (typically every 4 years) probably correlating with prey booms in northern forests.  Clutch sizes are more like passerine species with Saw-whets laying up to 9 eggs, typically 5-6. If a rodent boom occurs many of the owlets will live to fledge and migrate. Sad to see the season end, but I always feel lucky to help out the awesome team at Drumlin who have been studying this amazing owl species for a long time now. Now on to Short-eared Owls and Long-eared Owls !

Little Blue Heron

A very late and somewhat rare Little Blue Heron ( this one is an immature bird, not yet showing its blue adult plumage)  has been at Belle Isle for almost a week. Also the resident Red Tail was hanging out with me this morning, a very tolerant bird.

More from Belle Isle

                                        Some early morning shots of the marsh at Belle Isle.

I also caught a mixed flock of Dunlin and Black-bellied Plovers in a freshly mowed salt-hay field on Plum.

Snowy Owls & Belle Isle

Snowy Owls have started to arrive, so far I have seen 3 birds on Plum Island.
                          Not a great shot, but one gets the idea. 

So I have started working at Belle Isle, which affords alot of great birds through out the day. This week a large push of Sparrows is moving through. I also had a very late Snowy Egret fly in this afternoon, but I did not have a camera.

                                                             Belle Isle salt Pannes

                                                          

                                         

                                                                  Tree Sparrow

                             White-throated Sparrow one of many moving through the reservation