Cave Hill Owl Nest

 Owls are nocturnal, right? They are active at night, and I am more likely to hear them than see them at any time. (Except for Short-eared owls and maybe Burrowing Owls, of course). I spent 10 years working at Raptor Rehabilitation Of KY, and most of my owl photos are of our education birds, rather than birds living in the wild. 

Now I have a new birder friend that we call the "Owl Whisperer." I swear, I think this man knows where every owl nest in Jefferson County is! Well, that may be a slight exaggeration, but not much. And he is a fantastic bird photographer. Birding ethics makes me reluctant to ask him where these owl nests are. After all, they have a right to privacy. He works at Cave Hill Cemetery, which seems much more than a graveyard in this community, and he is familiar with all the birds and other animals (such as foxes) who live there. He shared the location of this Great Horned Owl nest at the cemetery, and I hoped I would be able to find it. Until all the other birders showed up too!

It looks like she has taken over an old hawk's nest. With no leaves on the tree yet, the lighting is great for photos. She has 2 chicks, although I only think I saw one, and the male was off sleeping somewhere. We will have to go back in a few weeks to look for "branching" owlets, who are walking on the branches of the tree, and flapping their wings.

Raptor Free Flight

We just spent the most marvelous day at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and did not get to do everything we wanted. But they have the best raptor program I have ever seen, and I see all I can go to. The program is on the grounds, among the Saguaro Cactus, rather than in a building - important point #1 - so these birds could fly away any time they want to. They fly from perch to perch, buzzing the heads of the viewers. I told Dick they must not like his red hat, he got strafed so often.

I could make about 5 separate posts here with just the pictures from each raptor we saw, let alone the other desert birds and landscape. Let's cut to the chase, and just go for the photos, which became easier after I saw the handler putting little bits of meat on the next branch the bird would go to.

They have a family of Harris Hawks who all came at one time in the afternoon show. It's amazing that no other raptor lives and hunts in a pack, essentially. The female is always in charge of the family.

This Chihuahuan Raven chuckled as he lightly touched someone's head while flying over. "Every time," quoth the Raven. "Ole"

Don't think this American Kestral is just a sweet tiny bird. It is a mighty hunter.

I wouldn't want a Ferruginous Hawk smiling at me from a branch. Looks like she's giving us the eye as her next breakfast! Her mouth is so wide she can swallow her prey whole if necessary. I know, this isn't a raptor, but a Cactus Wren. They are all over the place, and noisy in the wren tradition. I was surprised to see they are about the size of a Robin, not the small eastern wrens I am familiar with.

And there was morning and evening of the second day, and it was good.....not even mentioning the little Costa's Hummingbird and Broad Billed Hummingbirds we saw. I can't spell Phainopepla without looking it up again, but we saw a bunch of them. Wishing has made it so once more - our first Western Tanager was in the aviary! Next on the wish list is a Roadrunner - meep! meep!