Whenever we watch the Woodcocks' aerial displays I wonder if Great Horned Owls ever take advantage and go after them, and if not, why not.
Last night as DuBois and I approached the singing grounds I could see a Great Horned Owl on top of a dead tree next to the display area. When it noticed us, the owl dropped toward the ground and sailed low across the field and into the woods where the Woodcocks usually congregate.
But we had other distractions. The mountaintop pasture has been empty but this time those five aggressive bulls that chased us last year appeared and began snorting and charging at us.
DuBois finally rushed them, waving a stadium pad to back them off enough for me to climb a gate to another field, where we watched the rest of the show.
After the Woodcock beeping stopped we headed down, but the bulls kept charging us from behind in the dark. DuBois would flash the super spotlight at them to make them swerve away, but they'd just re-group. I was relieved to crawl under the fence at the edge of the forest onto our land and head down the path toward the bottom of the mountain.
This morning when I went up the mountain to change the Cuddeback SD card, two male Pine Warblers were duking it out in a sapling about 30 ft away.
When I reached our pond the juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk flew up from the bank toward me, clutching what appeared to be a frog in one foot. It landed in the top of a small yellow pine about 50 feet away and began carefully eating its catch, then lifted its head and began giving its "Kee-yer! Keeyer!" cries. I'd grown tired of lugging the heavy 400mm lens up to the pond each day for nothing and hadn't brought it, of course.
Finally the young hawk launched out and circled me, just grazing the the Yellow Pines overhead, wheeling neatly in a slow, tight circle as though on a pivot. I was fascinated to watch it tilt its tail and angle the spread wing feathers to achieve each turn, just over stall speed. When it finally went off, still yelping, to wheel over another part of the woods, I continued on down the hill to walk the dogs.
But on the way back from Narnia Ridge I heard the cries again and looked up to see an adult pair of Red-shouldered Hawk hanging in the air, almost stationary, high above the horse pasture, and the young hawk yelping and making passes at them, as though attacking or challenging them. If so, the adult pair didn't seem concerned and didn't react at all, leaving me wondering if they were its parents.
luc_quebec
rachel_frome_kyOriginal Author
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