WEIT stalwart Stephen Barnard sent Jerry some more gorgeous photos from Idaho with his comments.
Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). The first two photos show the difference in size between the female and the male. That’s Desi on the left and Lucy on the right.
This American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) has been patrolling my backyard. It likes to perch high in a 40′ spruce that gets good evening sun. This same perch is favored by many other birds — Red-tails, Flickers, kingbirds, and doves — as in the last photo I shot moments before the Kestrel showed up. It’s good hunting here. I keep my feeders full.
This large bull moose was getting frisky with some cows. A smaller, less well endowed bull tried to horn in and the big guy chased him off.
There were at least eight moose in the field across the creek and in my yard — by far the most I’ve seen at once.
Thank you, Stephen, for sharing these amazing photos.
He may be big but he has asymmetrical antlers -surely an idication of a ‘less fit’ male. I would think a bull with symmetrical antlers would see him off, even if only because in a fight he would be disadvantaged. It would be interesting to follow this male & see what his antlers are like next year, if he survives –
http://www.woods-n-waternews.com/Articles-i-2007-11-01-165358.112113-Are_unbalanced_antlers_indicative_of_poor_genetics.html
I think he’s broken some tines off in battle.
Great photos, thanks Stephen! Amazing number of moose you have locally! Kestrels are one of my favorite birds.
The Kestrel is such a beautiful animal. The moose, on the other hand, seems like a misshapen deer. Too many lumps – and the nose is just too big.
What an interesting place.
What does Deets think of the moose?
And really, “meese” as the plural form of moose would just be so much more fun than “moose.” Hmmm. Taking a quick look it turns out the “mooses” was the accepted correct plural form sometime in the past and that “moose” is more recent. “Meeses” would be even more fun.
As immortalized by George Clinton in the truly funkulicious Sir Nose d’Voidoffunk,
Of course, he was talking about mice, but why let a little detail like that get in the way?
Whenever Jerry posts pictures from Stephen, I think: “I want to go to there”.
Indeed. As a result I’ve even looked up where Idaho is, and discovered its a lot further north and west than I’d thought.
People confuse it with Iowa and Ohio.
If Idaho’s landscape were a person, and if I were that person, I’d be severely offended at being confused with Iowa or Ohio.
Being from Iowa I would be confused as well. The place of my origins is beautiful, but the landscape is quite different.
True, the plains have their own kind of beauty. But…I mean…the Rockies.
Backpedal, backpedal…
And Bullwinkle too.
In the third frame, it looks like Lucy is heading over to the Mertz’s nest to visit Ethel.
Very nice pics.
Beautiful pictures! I suppose the bird feeder is, indirectly, another kind of bird feeder, if ya know what I mean.
Um, the bull moose seems to be a little excited…
I missed that. I had to go back and look! 🙂
I so enjoy every new episode from Wild Kingdom, Idaho!
Re: First photo of Eagles. The male eagle on the right looks like Sam Shepard to me.
For the last 9 months or so, I have been sighting a single male blue falcon. Just saw him again o the way to work a week ago perched on the telephone lines. I have seen him within a radius of 2 miles from my home. This spring, I spied him sitting on a branch in my back yard for two days in a row, and had the chance to take an iPhone pic through the screen of my window. The picture isn’t worth the post, but by god next time I see him I am going to stop my car and get a good shot!
Awesome photos Stephen…the wildlife is humming out there at your ranch in Idaho.