Snake River Screech Owls

Saturday May 19 2012

I've been lucky enough over the years to have helped with spotted owl research and banding. And I was lucky enough to participate in helping to band screech owls with the Boise district BLM! They take out a handful of people on raptor banding trips throughout the year. I signed up for this one about 6 months ago.

Retired biologist John Doremus started working with raptors for the BLM in 1972, and he was the raptor biologist for the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area in Owyhee County along the Snake River since it was first designated a Natural protected area in 1993. He started hanging nest boxes and building nesting platforms for raptors, and banding and monitoring the birds; and as the BLM manages this NCA, they continue this raptor banding and monitoring today.

A group of us went to a number of these nest boxes occupied by screech owls along the Snake River. 4 of the 5 boxes were occupied; 3 nests had owlets too young to band (1 week old and 2 weeks old); we banded one nest with 5 young (3 weeks old).

Here's how you catch a screech owl: Greg Kaltenecker from the Idaho Bird Observatory was the Master Raptor bander. He climbed a ladder to the nest box, opened the top, and reached in and removed the adult (presumably) female screech owl and handed her off to one of us;

then one by one he reached in and removed the 5 owlets.

When owls are upset or feel threatened, they snap their beaks. All around us were the Snap! Crackle! Pop! of agitated owls. After a while though, as long as you don't make loud noises or make sudden movements, they relax in your hands.

Greg attached a silver federal band, each with a unique number, to the right leg of each owl, then weighed each of them, while Jill recorded the info.


The owlets were sublimely, ridiculously cute, and of course we all posed with our fluffy little treasures before Greg tucked them all snugly back in their nest box, putting mama screech in lastly on top of them.


One day, maybe each of these babies will be sitting on nests of their own along the Snake River.

[slide show here]

The Final Pre-Fandango Shindig

Monday May 15 2012

It's 13 days before the 100-mile Owyhee Fandango, and we gave the boys their final longest and hardest ride of 22 miles. I rode Jose, Carol rode August, and since Connie is still out of town, Judy sub-jockeyed on Finneas. (We all decided Connie needs to bake Judy one of her famous cakes as thanks.)(Which we all get to sample.)

We lit out across country to Regina's place, 11 miles at a smart clip (from 8 to 12 mph), sustained trotting most all the way, minimal climbing and descending, mostly trails and two-track. Jose and I thought it was a bit warm, but I purposely didn't didn't braid his mane, and I purposely did not wear my cool vest yet. 

At Regina's house we sponged the boys off and let them rest and graze, while we ate our lunch and grabbed some cool water from the house (thanks Regina!). Not that we're wimps or anything, but we were grateful for the high cloud cover that snuck over during our lunch break, or else it would have been a lot hotter on the ride home.

After a half hour break, we mounted up and rode the 11 miles back home. 

And that's it. The boys are ready. Between now and the 100-mile ride, we'll take them on two more easy rides of 5-7 miles. We are fortunate to have 200 acres for the horses to move about on, and they do that, up and down the canyon at least once a day. (Well, Finneas is still working on his diet right now; losing weight is the most important thing for him.)

I discovered a few things on this longer ride I need to adjust.

I need to attach a third water bottle holder on my saddle. I DEFINITELY need to freeze my water bottles the night before the 100. Drinking warm water is disgusting and does not quench my thirst. I'll drink much more and stay better hydrated if my water is cold or at least cool.

I definitely need a haircut. Jose will have his mane braided. I definitely need to find cooler tights, and I will be wearing my cool vest. Our horses (and me!) will be wearing a turquoise bead in their manes so we don't get struck by lightning (old Navajo saying; I don't know if it applies to white people and their horses, but I'm doing it just in case!).

I need to get in better shape! I was whooped after our ride and I felt like I'd just done a 50 mile ride. I would have had 78 more to go! If I were a bigger and better man, I'd have gone out in the evening and done a 5-6 mile hike.

But, I'm not and I didn't. I had a nice smoothie and a bowl of popcorn and watched my soap on Hulu, and went to bed early. 

Jose is ready! I'll work on conditioning myself more another day.

Re-Monster Post

Monday May 14 2012

some of you subscribers didn't get the horse baby video I embedded in my last post, so here's the link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c5VDBIqjGY

Monster's First Day

Monday May 14 2012

It's hard work being a baby horse on the first day of life, coming from a dark and quiet womb into all the sights and colors and sounds and smells of a new world, figuring out the food source, and the long legs that wobble and won't fold right.

Steph's new little monster on the crick - could one day be her new endurance horse! - got a new name which is debuted in this video I made of her on her first day on earth!

Meet the Owyhee Fandango 100-Mile Team

Saturday May 12 2012

3 girls, 3 horses.

Carol gathered a few quick pictures to give you an idea of who we are:

Connie & Finneas

Carol & August

Me & Jose

I'll flesh out the characters in another blog entry.

Connie's gone till next weekend, so right now I'm keeping two horses fit - Jose and Finneas. We also put Finneas on a diet!!!! He needs to lose about 20 pounds before the ride. As Steph pointed out, it's the heat that will affect him most - he doesn't pulse down fast anyway (probably that appy blood in him, plus he's a black horse), and the more fat he carries, the harder it will be to dissipate that heat in his body. Finneas is not fond of dieting. He can scream like a girl horse when he's starving, which, when he's on a diet, is every time he sees me walk by. I tell him it's for his own good, but he does not believe me!

Connie is having some trouble with counting, as, for the last week, she's been thinking we have 20 days to go till the ride, when it's really only 15 days left!

Steph is considering having a teams competition for the ride, and regardless, we three girls on the crick need a team name. For some reason, the "F" team seems to have come up, from some of the emails Flying between us:

Ferociously FABULOUSLY Far-freaking-out FAMOUSLY FIT 'n FABULOUS FEMME FATALES on Flying horses…

and right now Fiiineas is Fabulously Fit and Fabulously Fat (and Fabulously opinionated)

And don't any of you add "funky" and "flatulent"!

Maybe readers will have some better suggestions than "Team F" … how about it? 

Suggestion anybody?

P.S. I wish I could say I did the artwork, but Carol found them online! They fit us each so well, don't you think?

The Owl Tree

Thursday May 10 2012

He's been driving me mad. 

A male screech owl, uncommonly hooting during the day, for the last couple of days. He's very close, but I've been unable find the little hooter.

One daytime hoot - the sound of a pingpong ball bouncing - sends me flying outside to try to pinpoint his location… but he does not make another sound… until hours later when I'm back inside. I jump back outside with camera and binoculars, and begin to scan the trees. He must be somewhere within 40 yards, in one of the trees along the creek.

The leaves are starting to grow thick on the cottonwood trees, but I peer through them, raking every trunk, every branch with my binoculars, walking slowly up the creek and back, but I see nothing except for leaves and bark. The owl doesn't give a clue - doesn't move a feather, doesn't blink an eye, doesn't utter another sound. I cross the creek and study the trees from the other side, but I can see nothing but leaves and bark from a different angle, a jigsaw puzzle with a million green leaves, white bark of cottonwoods and brown bark of locusts, and an invisible bird. I know he is watching me. Half an hour I spend, methodically searching the trees - but I come up empty. 

The screech owl hoots again during the next day, and I resume my search. As I'm scanning with my binoculars a particularly tall and gnarly locust tree, one in which I would be roosting if I were an owl, I realize my lenses have focused right on an owl! He is so well camouflaged, I almost miss him. It's not the screech owl; it's a larger great horned owl, perching like a knot on the tree branch, his eyes sleepy slits, as he barely acknowledges this owl-hungry human wandering below his Owl Tree. 

But there is no sign of the screech owl, who I am sure is still watching me.

The screech owl hoots once again on the third day, but the only owl I find is the silent great horned owl, perched in a fork of the Owl Tree.

The screech owl hoots once again on the fourth day, and I leap outside, armed with camera and binos, and I swear I will not go back inside again until I find this mysterious owl. Today he gives me one more clue as I'm outside: a single sound - a high pitched 'Wop!' - which narrows my focus to an area twenty yards wide, ten deep, a tree on either side of the creek, maybe 30 feet up.

Again I comb the trees with my bare eyes and the binoculars, up the creek then back down the creek, one side, then the other side of the creek, analyzing every branch. Time passes, water tumbles down the creek, wind sighs in the trees - but the owl holds his silence. 

I am drawn back to the Owl Tree. There is something about this tree. I scan it with my bare eyes, and again with my binoculars - and suddenly I find I am staring right at him - the screech owl, looking in every way - shape and size, streaked markings the color and direction of the bark - like the Owl Tree itself. 

His eyes are sleepy slits, and like his bigger great horned cousin, he knows I'm there, but barely acknowledges this human who can't hardly tell an owl from a tree.

Now I have a friend. Even when he doesn't hoot during the day, talking in his owl sleep of his good owl dreams, I check the Owl Tree, and I can pick him out with my bare eyes. Now he is obvious to me, because I know his secret now. I can see.

Monster on the Crick!

Tuesday May 8 2012

There she was, gangly legs, wobbly knees and all, by the time we got up this morning.

She's light brown, but will likely turn gray like her mama.

She nursed, she pooped, and was soon looking for a way to fold those long legs to lay down and take a nap. It would take a structural engineer to figure that one out - which she hadn't figured out yet, while I was watching.

A nice morning surprise, a new little monster on the crick!