Relocated Site 1 about 2 years ago, Recently was looking to upgrade the box here as well, but before I swapped it out for a new version of squirrel resistant box, I did a quick check of the the older box so I would not be surprised on a ladder, good thing too as a den of 3 flying squirrels had moved in. I have seen flying squirrels on cam at night in boxes, but I have never had them set up shop in a box. So this was a first. I felt bad I had to dislodge them but they quickly scurried and found natural hollows to shelter in, one did pause long enough on a tree trunk to get a good pic as well. This also means no screech owls around or using the box, as flying squirrels are small enough for a Screech to prey upon flying squirrels.
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What is nice, was that it was a pair of Red-Shouldered Hawks, They may have been just passing through, but hopefully they will stick around. No Screech owls, but some activity to summarize since its been a long time since a update here. Barred owls were around all summer and fall and heard almost daily even during the day. But since the cold weather has moved in, its been tough to say if they are still around since its harder to hear them.
Also the leucistic hawk was seen briefly a couple times in January 2014. So brief though that no photo documentation was taken.
someone on the local bird list-serve past along a great link of a long-eared owl nest in Montana, I will pass it along as well.
rrrrg. never did find roosting long-eareds after some dedicated time in some great looking habitat, but with all the Barreds around they would be wise to hide, always next year! long-eared owl cam
A Coyote has taken up resident in and around site 1, seen its tracks all winter, but just recently saw it for the first time, today it was lounging around…
Not much to report owl wise, the male spends some/most time in the entrance to the presumed nest box, hopefully as the female dutifully incubates, and every now and then spends the day in ‘his’ box.
If my estimates of incubation are correct then hatching should be less than a week away.
male in his box
male from 4/16/13 just a different angle male in the entrance of the ‘nest’ box.
It seems this is the time of year is when I get to see this mostly leucistic red-tailed hawk. Last September was the last time I saw it. It looks as though its has a bit more coloration on its head, I guess that this is the same hawk but after a molt some coloration came back around the head? what are the chances this is a different hawk? still to far away at ~125 meters (410+ feet) so this is the best I could do.
3-27-13 go 6 months with out seeing this hawk and now see it twice in as many days, saw it first thing this morning on my way into work, the sun had yet to get above the tree line, but it was quite a bit closer.
Not often you have 6+ bald eagles with-in 10 minutes of our house, so an easy time to take a look at them. they were still ~200 yards away on a mostly frozen Wenham Lake (they were first reported Jan 4th 2013) and even appeared in some local papers, before we had the time to look for them, but had fun watching for awhile on cedar st. with a couple of other people. A total of 6 were seen at any one time, but I think there has been reports of more.
and its becoming an family owl challenge as my daughter gets a point for following a flushed barred owl, and my son get a point for first hearing a pair of duetting great horned owls both at appleton farms yesterday afternoon/evenings on a family walk.
Just a lucky shot, my kids called me outside and told me hawks were battling, the white one was top of a large spruce, so I took aim as I pressed the button the other red tailed hawk appeared ‘out of nowhere’ and buzzed the white hawk. Really didn’t know what just happened until I looked at the pic, as I never actually saw the hawk do the summersault. However, the distance involved was ~ 450 feet (140 meters) so too far to get a good quality photo. So incase it is not clear, the head is facing us, with the talons in the air and tail off up and to the left. Just an interesting frozen moment in time.
This ‘white’ red tailed hawk has been around since March 2011, But this is the first of my sightings from here since early spring 2012. Nice to see it around still.
Back in april 2011 there was a ‘cool red tailed hawk’ flying about, I saw every so often during the summer and fall, but recently or maybe I have just noticed more, it has been defending the area around site 2. I saw it on January 1 2012 chase another red tailed hawk at full speed. Yesterday another normal looking red tailed was soaring fairly low and a few crows started to give chase and the white red tailed came in behind the pack of crows, and seemed to chase the crows away? perhaps helping out a mate? then landed on top of a row of pines about ~100 yards away. Since there aren’t any owls at this site using the boxes maybe this hawk can keep things interesting.
Owl Oasis Trail 