Birds of Prey
The American Kestrel is the smallest falcon in North America (about the size of an American Robin). They nested in our neighborhood for many years, and were something I always looked forward to seeing on our morning walks. They’re brightly colored—like little US flags when they perch, like hovering drones when they hunt. I still watch for them even though they moved on a few years ago. We used to see them frequently throughout our valley, but we don’t see them as often anymore, even in the expected agricultural areas around the lake. It’s not just me, though: recently, I’ve their populations are declining throughout North America. Ornithologists don’t understand why their numbers are plummeting faster than other falcons, but are concerned because kestrel populations reflect the health of a much larger ecosystem.
We had a saw-whet owl visit our neighborhood this winter. I’d never seen one before; I’d only ever heard their whistling-bark call in recordings. They are found throughout North America, but where we live, they only occasionally come down to visit us in the valley as they prefer the coniferous areas at the higher elevations. I’ve painted this one larger than life to demand your attention since they so rarely get it—in reality, however, they’re similar in size to an American Robin.
A full-grown pygmy owl is roughly the size and weight of a nearly empty soda can. What could a little diurnal owl that size possibly catch to eat? Insects, of course, but also frogs and lizards, birds smaller than a soda can, and… birds much larger than a soda can. Like all their owl relatives, pygmy owls are excellent hunters and don’t let their size interfere with their tenacity and wit. The best way to find these diurnal owls is to watch for groups of noisy birds swarming perches to drive an owl away.
If we wanted to see owls with my dad growing up, we’d get up with him at midnight, bundle up, and wander around in the frigid darkness making owl sounds and being very still—which may be why I love burrowing owls so much. These loooong-legged owls are largely diurnal making them fairly easy to see during the day if you know where they live. They generally nest in little colonies in burrows that other animals have abandoned (prairie dogs, rabbits, construction workers…) in open fields, desert landscapes and, of course, golf courses. When threatened, they retreat to their burrows and make the rattling and hissing sounds of a rattlesnake to bewilder their predators, which seems to work well.
This western screech owl nested with its partner in our neighbor’s huge hundred-year-old tree for several years before a storm took the tree down. While the chicks grew, the parents took turns roosting in our trees to keep a lookout, and because there was no room for all of them in the tree’s cavity once the chicks had hatched. The first year they nested, they must have been very young parents because we saw both parents and chicks frequently–one of the parents even attacked me when I moved their fledgling owlet out of the road one evening so it wouldn’t get caught in neighborhood traffic. But we rarely saw them in later years even though we could hear them every evening. Even bird parents improve with experience!
