Category Archives: Birds

Hummingbirds are Magical

Birds, Hummingbirds, Nature

The American PBS show Nature once had a special on Hummingibrds.   It was indeed special because the subject of the show, hummingbirds are really special. Hummingbirds truly are “a magical work of nature.” Science and technology have struggled to keep up with them. Some modern movie cameras have revealed amazing things about their flight.

Hummingbirds have not stopped evolving. They are like no other birds on earth. Or better yet, hummingbirds are like no other birds in the sky.

“The more we learn, the more fascinating they are.” It has been a great summer. So far.

 

Self-Sabotage

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, Birds, Nature

 

While we stayed at our B & B outside of Chester, Nova Scotia, we suffered a power failure, and I reluctantly went to bed at 10 o’clock one night at our lovely B & B in Chester Nova Scotia. After that I did not miss the sunrise in the morning as I often do. John Lennon, that great English philosopher, once wrote, “The sunrise every morning is a beautiful spectacle, and yet most of the audience still sleeps.” It was not a great sunrise though. Too many clouds covering the beatify. That was a pity. Or as the British would say, a dreadful pity.

 

I must admit I am guilty of missing the vast majority of sunrises. I have called myself an inspector of sunsets, but confess I have missed many sunrises, which are really just as good.

 

I did enjoy reading this morning in the lavish rooms of an outstanding B & B. . I got back to my book on the fur trade, finally. I had been too busy to read now for some time. That is another of my serious moral failings. Today though I enjoyed the quite morning.

 

After reading awhile, I noticed a lovely band of pale orange/red slipping through the blinds of the living room from my upstairs lounge vantage point. It took me too long to realize I should be photographing it. My bad. A bad photographer, distracted by an interesting book. Oh well that was good too. Our host Jackie was not so slack. She captured a wonderful image. By the time I got there the picture was lame. In photography the prize often goes to the fleet of foot, not the malingerer.

 

 

A little later in Mahone Bay I saw this cormorant soaking up the sun in its face.  It did not miss the sun rise. It was not a malingerer.

 

Yet I thought of what legendary Canadian photographer, Freeman Paterson said. I had watched a documentary on him on Gem recently. Many years ago, Paterson presented an outstanding slide show in Steinbach. Who said Steinbach is a cultural desert?

 

Paterson knows a thing or two about beauty. Even how to create or capture it in distinctive images. He said in a recent newsletter, “I’ve long observed that most of the people sacrifice the pursuit of beauty—natural or otherwise—on the altar of perceived necessity. There always seems to be more important things to do. Life gets in the way. Yet the day will come when we no longer have the opportunity to have experiences, nor to create the enriching, sustaining memories that come with them. One might call it, self-sabotage.” It’s like missing the sunrise. Same thing. Self-sabotage.

Harris Hawks: Hawks of the South

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Birds, Natural History, photography

 

 

In the US Harris Hawks can be found from Arizona to Texas, but not farther north. They can be found as far south as South America.

It has a long tail and a relatively small head.  Harris’s hawks can live up to 15 or 20 years old. The Harris’s hawk is usually between 18-24 inches in body length and has a wingspan of 3-4 feet yet only weighs from 1&1/2 pounds to 2 & ½ pounds.

Some of the Harris Hawks nest in spring but some females lay a second or even a third clutch whether or not their first breeding attempt fails. As a result, in Arizona eggs have been recorded in each month of the year.  This is possible because they nest in the southwest USA and farther south. This would not be so easy in Manitoba.

Young Harris Hawks sometimes play with each other by chasing insects or jumping on stick in imitation of the prey they capture.

Like most hawks, the female Harris hawks are larger than their male counterparts.  males. Sometimes these hawks practice a behavior known as “back-standing” where several birds stand on top of each other.

 

Harris Hawk: The Cooperators

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Arizona Photos, Birds, Evolution

 

Harris Hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus)

At the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum the last raptors we saw in flight were Harris Hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus)  which I have seen a number of times before.  I was very lucky to have captured an image of this wonderful bird in flight,

 

This bird is unusual because it is one of the few birds of prey that hunts in packs. As a result, Harris Hawks  are more successful at capturing prey than individuals that hunt alone, but, of course, that means they have to share.

Harris’s are one of only two truly cooperative hunters in the raptor world. They will live in pairs in the tropical areas, or places where prey is abundant. In areas such as the Sonoran desert where prey has a lot of good cover because this desert contains a lot of vegetation,  they have been documented in groups as large as 9 birds.

That is why they are sometimes called ‘wolves of the air‘ taking their turns harrying a rabbit or squirrel and then chasing it out of cover towards other members that catch it. Here at the Museum they did not have to harry prey because the food was laid out for them. Briefly, the commentator giving us information through a loudspeaker tried to trick us into thinking they had found some prey were trying to pursue it into a corner. She soon acknowledged that this was not the case.

Sometimes Harris Hawks have been electrocuted by hydro lines, but sometimes other members of the group will return to help the injured hawk.  Thus, they carry their cooperating to extremes.  This cooperative view of species is sometimes controversial, as some evolutionists believe there is no cooperation in nature, just competition, but I think the better view is that cooperation is real, and Harris Hawks are an example of that.

They also nest in social groups that allows them to bond before they venture out together on hunting raids.

 

Crested Caracara

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Birds, photography

 

 

I have been to the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum many times, but this year we saw a new species the Crested Caracara (Caracara cheriway). This  bird is a fairly recent immigrant to Arizona that flew in over Trump’s vaunted wall. Actually, it arrived before the wall, but the wall would not have bothered it.

This bird is very rare in the United States, but it has been expanding its range into the southern United. So far it has only reached a few of the most southerly states.

It was a treat to see this magnificent bird up close.

It is a falcon but looks a little like a vulture. It acts a bit like a vulture too usually dining on carcases or otherwise immobile prey that it locates by soaring or cruising over pastureland or grassland. Sometimes it can be found in a group of vultures participating in a feast.

It is easy to recognize this bird as it stands tall on yellow-orange legs with a sharp black cap set off against a white neck and yellow-orange face

 

The Crested Caracara is a bird of open country and reaches only a few states in the southern U.S. It flies low on flat wings, and routinely walks on the ground.

 

 

 

A silent hunter

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Arizona Photos, Birds, photography

 

 

The Great Horned owls fly extremely quietly to avoid giving themselves away to their prey. I learned this personally and directly when I was at the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum one came up from behind me and flew right over my head and I never heard it. It was so close I could have touched it. I did hear excited people gasping near to me and I did not why until it had flown by . It was so close I could have touched it. I pretended to be brave. It gave me a personal feeling of what it must be like to be a prey of such a magnificent raptor. It was thrilling.

These owls have very good low-light eyesight, and hearing that allows them to spot prey in difficult circumstances. I don’t think they saw an old fat guy like me as prey.

These owls don’t actually have horns. They have tufts near the ears that gives them their names. They also have deep yellow eyes

They will eat a great variety of prey including large insects, reptiles, amphibians, other birds, and small mammals such as skunks and jackrabbits. I don’t know about you but I have no intent to add skunk to my diet.

The Great Horned Owl is a generalist raptor that captures a very wide range of prey, including reptiles, amphibians, rodents, and birds and can be found throughout the U.S. and even Canada in many different all habitats.

Owls do not build their own nests; because they lay eggs earlier in the year than most other species, they use old raven and hawk nests to raise their young. As a result, in Manitoba I have managed to see them early in the year where their young must battle the cold.

 These owls sometimes fall prey to Golden eagles or Northern goshawks.

Today was the first time I managed to capture a photo of these magnificent birds in flight. It was a great experience for which I was very grateful .

 

Great Horned Owl

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Birds, Natural History, photography

 

 

 

At the Arizona- Sonoran Desert Museum I saw a Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) can close its feet with 500 psi (pounds per square inch). I have seen these before in Manitoba but never this close. This was a treat.

The average human exerts- squeezing as hard as 80-150 psi. However, the story that owls will eat your dogs/cats is an mainly an urban legend because an owl cannot lift more than its own body weight of (2-3 lbs).

These owls are found around North America, and owls are found throughout urban areas. Many people fear they will attack their pet cats.  While we don’t like to say it ‘never’ happens, it certainly doesn’t happen with frequency. Owls will dive at cats, dogs and even people if they have a nest in the area, sometimes misconstrued as a hunting attempt.

 

The Great Horned Owl is a generalist raptor that captures a very wide range of prey, including reptiles, amphibians, rodents, and birds and can be found throughout the U.S. and even Canada in many different all habitats. Today was the first time I managed to capture a photo of these magnificent birds in flight

These owls are found around North America, and owls are found throughout urban areas. Many people fear they will attack their pet cats.  While no one should  say it ‘never’ happens, it certainly doesn’t happen with frequency. Owls will dive at cats, dogs and even people if they have a nest in the area, sometimes misconstrued as a hunting attempt.

 

Sonoran Desert Museum Tucson

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Birds, Natural History, photography

 

This is a Great Horned Owl which I saw in Tucson Arizona this winter.

In Arizona this past winter, we went to one of my favorite places in Arizona, the Arizona- Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson Arizona. The word “museum” however is very misleading. You have to put all of your preconceptions about what a museum is on the shelf. This place is very different.  As they say here, “this is a place to turn your idea of museum inside out.”

It is almost entirely outdoors and consists of a 98-acre zoo, aquarium, botanical garden, natural history museum, publisher, and art gallery that was founded in 1952 and is located west of Tucson adjacent to the Saguaro National Park and closely integrated with it. It  features 2 miles of walking paths through a 21 acres of desert landscape. It is a place of wonder. If you want to learn about the Sonoran Desert this is a great place to start as it contains much of the flora and fauna of that special North American desert.

My favorite part of this museum is the Live Raptor display that is held each winter. Here you get to see a variety of desert flying raptors flying in the wide open spaces. The birds are actually free to fly away and sometimes do exactly that. They don’t usually fly away because they know if they show a bit of patience people will place food for them in the surrounding shrubs, cacti and other plants. Why would you leave this place if food in convenient bite-sized chunks will soon be available? This food is place on shrubs close to where the people stand with cameras at the ready.

I have tried a number of times to get photos of raptors in flight and failed each time until this year. This year I was thrilled with my results. I have will show more of my photos in future posts.

The Museum  contains only birds that can be found in the Sonoran Desert.  The birds are completely untethered and without any jesses (leg straps) and mainly even without bracelets. A narrator tells the story of each specie on display that day including their habits, diets, hunting strategies, behaviors, and fun facts that I usually end up forgetting because I get to wrapped up in the raptor display. But that’s me.

The thing that is most surprising about this place is how close the raptors come to us. It turned out today that as far as the raptors were concerned, I was the centre of attention. A number of times they swooped right over my head. I could have touched them were I not such a smart guy (big chicken) who knew better than to touch them in flight. A few times I missed a great shot of a bird because I was too close to photograph it with my zoom lens.

This was a sensational day!