Tuesday, April 24, 2012

And speaking of surprises . . .

How many people can say that they saw two adult Bald Eagles AND two Great Horned Owls within 3 hours right across their street?

Scott B. was the hero of my day, banging on my door to report: first, a bald eagle sitting in the middle of their field and second, that an owl was calling in the woods.

The eagle took off as I made my way down the lane, when Tim B. shot a groundhog nearby. It disappeared for a few minutes, then came soaring over the next field at treetop level, soon joined by another magnificent bird. They circled with each other, getting higher and higher, and I was hoping for one of their locking freefalls, but alas, they flew off toward Berlin.

A few hours later, another knock on the door and Ted and I were off with Scott to discover the two owls who were calling while it was still light in the woods behind Marilyn's. We knew they were very near, but couldn't see them from the edge so walked in on the open path. We saw the silhouette of one perched at the top of a snag and it abruptly flew. Then I spotted the second, just as it flew after the first. We heard them several more times, this time much farther away. I will be waiting for a phone call from Terry tonight. She has promised to call me when the owl starts calling from the large pine outside her bedroom window. It's covered with fresh whitewash and is apparently the roost from which it has been nabbing their chickens over the last week.

In other bird news, Ted and I saw the Baltimore Oriole at the window feeder at 9 this morning. It is fully molted into the striking orange and black adult male we suspected it was.

And this PM, neighbor Marilyn had her first male Ruby-Throated Hummingbird at her feeder.

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