American Kestrel

 

The American Kestrel, also called a Sparrow Hawk, is the smallest falcon in North America.

Males are smaller and more colourful and have blue gray wings, orange tail, and crisp black spotting on the belly. Both male and female have a pair of black slashes on the sides of their pale faces.

Grasshoppers and other insects, as well as mice and small birds, form most of their diet.

American Kestrels usually occupy grasslands and you can find them perched on telephone wires along roadsides.

It’s estimated there are 2.5 million in the United States and Canada although the population is declining. ( Cornell All About Birds )

Sea Otter

 

We had the pleasure of watching Sea Otters on our whale watching excursions in Alaska.

The Sea Otter is one of the few mammal species on Earth to use a tool to help feed. It will wedge a rock between its chest and foreleg and pound shells against it to open them.

The Sea Otter must consume between 25 and 40 percent of its body weight daily just to keep warm. They eat more than 100 different species and are considered a keystone species in their ecosystem.

The fur of the Sea Otter is the densest of any animal on Earth. It has no blubber to keep warm.

Although it is one of the smallest marine mammals on Earth it is the largest of the weasel family and can live its entire life without leaving the water.

During the 1700s the Russian fur trade along the North America coast, which carried on for over 150 years, almost drove the Sea Otter to extinction. The pelts were soft and provided great warmth. China was the main market for the furs.

By the end of the fur trade almost 1 million Sea Otters had been slaughtered and the total worldwide population had dwindled to about 1,000.

Great Horned Owl

We have been fortunate over the years to have many opportunities to observe Great Horned Owls.

Great Horned Owls are mottled gray-brown, with reddish brown faces and a neat white patch on the throat.

Great Horned Owls are nocturnal. You may see them at dusk sitting on fence posts or tree limbs at the edges of open areas, or flying across roads or fields with stiff, deep beats of their rounded wings. Their call is a deep, stuttering series of four to five hoots.

They have a broad range of habitats that includes deciduous and evergreen forests, swamps, desert, tundra edges, and tropical rainforest, as well as cities, orchards, suburbs, and parks.

Great Horned Owls can vary greatly in colour. Birds in the Canadian subarctic can be almost white while southern birds are more darker.

They average 18-24 inches tall and weigh in at around 3 lbs. Wingspan averages 44”.

The images below feature GHO’s at various stages from very early owlets, owlets ready to fledge, an adult feeding an owlet, and adults.

American Woodcock

The American Woodcock, sometimes referred to as the timberdoodle, is a small shorebird found primarily in the eastern part of North America.

They are plumb, short legged birds with long, straight bills.

American Woodcock spend most of their time hidden in fields and on the forest floor probing for earthworms.

They have a crazy back and forth rocking motion when you see them walking on the ground. Sometimes we have seen them just walking along the side of the road.

A fun spring activity, which has already started this spring, is to watch and listen to them at dusk. Males give a buzzing “peent” call and then launch into the air doing an erratic flight display before returning to the ground.

                                                                    

Wilson's Snipe

Wilson’s Snipe have extra large pectoral muscles that make them look so stocky.

With massive flight muscles they can reach speeds of 60 miles per hour.

They feed on worms, insect larvae, etc. by digging into the soft mud.

When Snipe fly, their outermost tail feathers are fanned making a “winnowing” sound. Research has found that this occurs at airspeeds around 25 miles per hour.

Because their eyes are so far back in their head, they have great peripheral vision. I guess that’s why I’ve struggled sometimes to get a good image. However once in awhile you find a very co-operative subject.

                                                                

Northern Pintail

This is waterfowl season in our area right now as many varieties of ducks are moving through the area.

With Sarnia being situated on both a river and a Great Lake it is a great place to see waterfowl. Northern Pintails start nesting as far north as the Northwest Territories as soon as the ice starts to thaw by late April.

They have been recorded migrating at night at speeds around 48 miles per hour and according to Cornell Lab the longest nonstop flight recorded for a Northern Pintail was 1,800 miles.

 

                                                                                

Eastern Meadowlark

Eastern Meadowlarks have started to arrive in our area and will nest in grassy farmlands around Lambton County

Eastern Meadowlarks are chunky, medium-sized songbirds with short tails and long, spear-shaped bills. In flight, their rounded wings, short tails, and long bills help set them apart from other grassland songbirds

Eastern Meadowlarks are pale brown marked with black, with bright-yellow underparts and a bold black V across the chest. Though most of the tail is brown with blackish barring, the outer feathers are white and conspicuous during flight.

Eastern Meadowlarks live in farm fields, grasslands, and wet fields. They nest on the ground and sing from exposed perches such as treetops, fenceposts, and utility lines.

Cornell All About Birds

Spectacled Owl

 

Through the years my granddaughter River has spent a lot of time camping, hiking, birding and owling with me all over North America and I was elated to share this most memorable owl experience with her.

We were in Panama on yet another owl prowl with the Spectacled Owl as our target bird. Our guide spent the day birding with us and in the afternoon took us up into the mountains birding. At a large plantation, up high in the mountains, we carefully moved through some dense foliage and were rewarded with not one but three Spectacled Owls sitting low on a branch. Truly a very rewarding experience.

We found 91 species that trip with 39 being lifers including a Mottled Owl.

Eastern Screech Owl

The earliest images I have of Eastern Screech Owls in Canatara are dated from 1987 however I’m sure they have been around a lot longer. Maybe forever.

Interestingly all the images I have through the nineties are of grey morphs or grey phase as they were called then. Recent studies have supported this observation concluding that the grey morph is the dominate colour in the northern range.

Studies also report that eighty percent of all ESOs live in urban settings now as it is believed to be a safer haven from predators. And that the average live span of a ESO is only 2-3 years.

Although there are many species of Screech Owls in the world Canada and the United States have only three main species of Screech Owls. Eastern, Western and Whiskered. I have been fortunate to photographed all three and been extremely fortunate to hear the adorable haunting Morse Code type call of the Whiskered in the still night air.

ESOs come in three morphs. Red, grey and brown with the brown morph the rarest of the three.

Females do range slightly larger than males however there is much overlap making identification difficult.

Screech owls eat a variety of foods including mice, voles, frogs, small birds, crayfish, plus various insects such as beetles, crickets and moths.

The incubation period for ESOs is approximately 30 days with another 30 days till fledge.

Red-shouldered Hawk

The Red-shouldered Hawk is probably my most favourite hawk. Usually uncommon in this area it seems as though it has become a more common sighting in the last few years. While camping in the Everglades we were awaken most mornings by their whistling calls.

They usually hunt from a perch either in a forest or open area. Sometimes they fly very low over open areas hunting for prey.

Diet consists of small mammals like voles and chipmunks, birds, reptiles and toads and frogs.