Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
This is for beginners and those new to this site. At the Waimea Valley yesterday, I was walking beneath the trees and heard a scream from above. A male peacock had flown up into the branches.
Can you spot him? This is rated “dead easy,” but I’d never seen a peacock in a tree before:
This is so easy that I won’t give a reveal, but do notice that despite his gaudy colors, the male is pretty cryptic up there.
Stephen Barnard sent a “spot the. . .” photo from Idaho, and in it, somewhere, lurks an owl (I don’t know the species, but I’ll ask). Click on the photo to enlarge it (twice to make it really big), and I’ll post a reveal at noon Chicago time.
This one ranks as “medium”, but please do not reveal in the comments where it is. If you found it, just note that.
We have photos from a new contributor today: Neil Dawe. And it is OWLS, which are H0norary Cats™. Neil’s notes are indented, and be sure to see his pair of “spot the owl” pictures at the end.
All these photos were taken on Vancouver Island in a small wooded area in Parksville, BC.
My wife and I walk Sophie, our Golden Lab, through a wooded area that, late last year, became home to a pair of Great Horned Owls (Bubo virginianus). Usuall, we would see or hear Barred Owls (Strix varia) during our walks. But that all ended about mid-December when we heard a pair of Great Horned Owls calling to each other and haven’t heard or seen the Barred Owls since. [JAC: here’s the barred owl]:
Our first glimpse of the horned owls came in February when we found the male perched in a western redcedar (Thuja plicata). The female, who does all the incubation, was likely on eggs.
Later, in April, we would invariably find the female perched in the same area on a bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) branch in the open, suggesting a nest with young was nearby.
She would keep her eye on us as we walked a trail some distance from where she was perched and where she often demonstrated her remarkable head-turning ability. Here she is looking at us with about a 220° counter-clockwise rotation of the head…
…and from the same position with about a 120° clockwise rotation.
We subsequently found the male who was usually perched in trees with more cover, such as this western red cedar (Thuja plicata).
One day, a friend spent an hour searching for the nest and found it in a cavity 8 m off the ground in a bigleaf maple close to where the female usually perched. Three young were in the nest. Here you can make out two of the young, one facing the camera and a downy head to the right of it (13 April).
A couple of days older and a little taller (15 April).
On 18 April, one young had fledged earlier in the day, suggesting eggs were laid in late January. These two, perched on the nest edge, were nearly ready to go. They left the nest on or about 23 April.
The female and one of the fledged young in the late afternoon of 24 April, some distance from the nest.
Here’s a fairly easy “find the owl” shot.
Find the owl reveal:
And Stephen Barnard in Idaho sent a movie of the two American kestrels (Falco sparverius) that have taken up residence (and apparently laid eggs) in a nestbox he made and fastened to his garage. Here’s Boris “bringing home the bacon”; according to Stephen, he’s feeding the brooding Natasha, and the eggs probably haven’t hatched yet (the food isn’t going into the box).
Be sure to enlarge this by clicking on the “vimeo” name and then the enlarging arrows:
In the Home Depot here in Las Cruces, the shed that abuts the garden section—thus having free access to outside—has harbored for years a pair of Great Horned Owls (Bubo virginianus), the most widely distributed owl in North America and the second heaviest (after the Snowy Owl). Owls have been resident here for about 25 years (not necessarily the same pair), and have had multiple clutches.
These species are nocturnal, so there’s a good chance of seeing them if you visit Home Depot (a large do-it-yourself store) during the day. My host Avis had previously written about the owls and sent a picture (see here), but I wanted to see them for myself.
What I’ll do is show two pictures of the roosting birds and ask you to spot the owls, and then in the reveal (click “read more” below), show zoomed pictures of what I saw. The male was more visible than the female.
Okay, spot the male owl. This ain’t hard! But you wouldn’t see it if you didn’t know it was there!
And then the female owl:
Then click below:
Did you spot the great blue heron in this morning’s photo? It wasn’t too hard, and here it is (click to enlarge). Stephen said this:
The image may be too small for a fair test, but it’s the first thing I see when I look out over the field. (The are actually two herons visible).
And some lagniappe:
These other two photos are of a heron that caught a vole and a Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus) trying to steal it.
Reader Tony Eales from Australia photographed a Little Lorikeet (Glossopsitta pusilla) in a tree. Can you spot it?
As this one isn’t too hard, I’ll put the reveal below the fold. But be sure you give it the old college try before you click on “read more”.
Did you spot it in this morning’s photographs? Here it is, with Stephen’s notes continued from the earlier post (click photos to enlarge):
3. Here it is.
4. 700mm:
