Hello Birders, Today I heard a pair of crows exhibiting mobbing behavior in a grove of pines my front yard in South Minneapolis. I had recently found them mobbing a Red-tailed Hawk and Cooper's Hawk in the area so I went out and expected the expected, only to find the unexpected. This turned out to be the best overall view I had of the Long-eared Owl because I was very close and the bird was heavily distracted by the aggressive corvids who made contact with the owl a few times and got a bill jab in return! I was able to call over some of my birding friends who got to see the bird in the pines. It was hugging the trunk of a tree and in dense cover so the photos and views where obscured but the bird surprised us all when it flew directly towards my kitchen window and pulled up and landed in a large crabapple. It was now on an exposed perch which allowed photographs and was able to somehow fool the crows that went back into the original position in the pines. The Long-eared Owl did its signature "look like a pencil" pose to escape detection. I was happy to share my sighting with the local birders and with some of my neighbors but because I live in a town home complex I couldn't have too many people over at a time (most of my neighbors would not care but there are a few...…) This was another example of how the birding hobby is full of surprises and I am constantly getting re-invigorated. It is also another example in my experience of how the most rewarding sightings seem to come when you least expect it (isn't that what they also say about finding love?) Many of my very best sightings were not when I was concentrating and scanning every tree in an area but when I stumbled upon the birds. I had a Yellow-throated Warbler four blocks from my house while I was pushing my kids to the park in a double stroller. I had to put the break on to quickly check a group of warblers that were feeding on my neighbor's doorstep, literally! Another time I found a Black-legged Kittiwake in Duluth when I was about to get back into my car after scanning the lake. The gull just caught the corner of my eye as I faced away from the lake- I was this close to entirely missing that bird. Then last summer I noticed some reddish finches eating gravel on the side of the road in Kidder County, ND and I told my mom I was going to turn around because I hadn't yet seen House Finches in the county yet. The reddish finches turned out to be a flock of Red Crossbills, in the middle of the Great Plains, in July! My point is that you aren't going to find a Lynx of a Black Bear in your yard in South Minneapolis, and you're not going to find a rare species of Noctuid moth because you just wouldn't know what the hell you are looking at, but you can find a Long-eared Owl in your yard in a big city because that's how birds are. They are unpredictable creatures that can fly and are readily identifiable and that's what makes this hobby so amazing. If you are new to the hobby and feeling frustrated give it time and if you are an old hand in the hobby you know that the next great surprise could be just around the corner..... or on the other side of that tree trunk!
Jason Caddy South Minneapolis 949-370-3157 ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
