Good afternoon,

It's been a while since I posted anything on Tweeters so I thought I'd get
an update out here and say 'Hi' to all the friends I made on the Owls By
Day fieldtrip led by my favorite Whisperererers, Mike and MerryLynn Denny.
That fieldtrip was really neat. A real hoot!! (Sorry.... Could't help
myself) Seriously though, best. fieldtrip. ever.

Since the fieldtrip, Alex and I have been all over the State and have found
some really cool birds along the way. Yes, Alex is still spotting most
of the owls first everywhere we go. I think the score, er, count is now
Alex - 13, Me - 3. But hey, its not a competition. Right?? (...as
I run for the binoculars first...hehe).

We've made a couple of spur of the moment quick trips to WW county stopping
at Hood Park and Charbonneau. We were thrilled to see 3 of the Saw-Whet
owl friends of Mike's sitting in the exact same place the day of our field
trip. Right where Mike and Merrylynn showed us. We also stopped at Levey
Landing Park and the Lost Island Habitat Management. There were a ton of
eagles (adults and juvies) flying around Levey Landing Park, along with
several hawks. Between those guys, the owls, and the Canadian geese the
place was crowded. We saw a few Magpie's and wow are they cool looking!
We also saw the usual crow, robin, seagull, several LBJ's (Little brown
jobies) and some BBJ's (Big brown jobies).

As we were looking around through the trees we found what appeared to be
the hide of a rabbit hanging in a tree. It was exactly like what Mike and
MerryLynne taught us on our field trip. Very sure a GHO left that behind.
We've seen several GHO and a few Saw Whets on our adventures and
have managed to get a few pics which we've posted on Flickr at the URL
below.

https://flic.kr/p/DFnb5g

Also posted in that link are a few pics of the baby Barred Owls from last
summer that hung out in our backyard/property and neigborhood. There were
3 babies last year. Mom and Dad are busy nesting again this year. Havent
heard any wheezers yet so not sure how many eggs they've got or how
successful their brooding season is going this year. Based on the
number of rabbits and mice running around this year I'd say they're
probably doing very well and no ones going hungry.

Last year it was mid June that the chipmunks and squirrels began chucking
quite loud all day. Everyday. They were not happy, but we didn't know why
at the time. I just knew their chucking was getting really annoying.
Haha! We didn't spot the baby Barred's until July 4th. We figured out the
babies had been in the yard, or within close proximity, the whole time.

This last Dec-Jan we had at least two adults and one child GHO pass
through. That was a first. The GHOs stuck around for about 2-3 weeks.
Haven't heard them sense.

In early March, for about one week we could hear a Saw Whet tooting away a
night. Last year we heard a Saw Whet tooting for about a week in early
April and then nothing. This year he was seemingly early. Also heard him
again just this last week which was unusual.

Hopefully we'll see some baby Barred's again this year. The Barred's have
done a fantastic job keeping the mole numbers down. :-)

Happy Birding,
A & W Magoo

Toomagoos at ... But use the symbol.... this 0 is not necessary... gmail
dot ....and you know the rest ..... com.
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