This morning, stepping onto my path, I startled an owl that had perched nearby, about to feast on a mouse (or was it a vole?). He swooped down and flew across my path — with that rodent draped from its beak — and up into the woods — in search, no doubt, of a more private breakfast nook.
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in search, no doubt, of a more private breakfast nook.
Would you trust some weird two leg-walker not to try to steal your delicious mouse that you worked so hard to acquire?
"Voles are small rodents that are relatives of lemmings and hamsters, but with a stouter body; a shorter, hairy tail; a slightly rounder head; smaller ears and eyes; and differently formed molars (high-crowned with angular cusps instead of low-crowned with rounded cusps). They are sometimes known as meadow mice or field mice in North America and Australia.
"Vole species form the subfamily Arvicolinae [in the family Cricetidae] with the lemmings and the muskrats. There are approximately 155 different vole species."
The common mouse, genus Mus, is in the family Muridae, along with various Eurasian field mice, including the wood mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus, and the Yellow-necked mouse, Apodemus flavicollis.
I found a sick owl in the backyard one morning. I scooped him into a cardboard box in the shade, and labelled the box with magic marker WOL. Called owl rescue and they took the boxed owl away. I imagine he ate a bad mouse.
I had NEVER heard of a vole until today; 62.5 years of ignorance.
Thanks, Ann.
"I'm going out. Do you need any voles?"
so, is this evidence that
Professors are Brain dead?
Boomers are Brain dead?
Journalism Boomer Professors are brain dead?
Peter Gade, director of graduate studies at the university’s Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, used the racial slur during a class Tuesday while comparing it to the trendy “OK, Boomer” putdown — claiming the phrase was equally offensive
At our house in St Paul there were voles who wintered under the air conditioner and who tunneled through the snow to get at the sunflower seeds that fell from the bird feeder. This amused the cat immensely.
BTW Dorothy Parker supposedly had a parakeet which she named Onan because he spilled his seed.
Vegans of the world red alert: There are birds are eating fresh meat. Kill the birds, kill the birds chant the Lord of the Flies. How dare they!
labelled the box with magic marker WOL
@rhhardin, you’re a graduate of the Madison public schools?
"Vole, vole, vole, vole... VOLE!"
I used to have a barn owl often present in my daily walk. Amazing birds. We'd also see owls often in the woods around my lake home. No shortage of chipmunks, mice, and squirrels to feat on.
The early bird gets the vole, and the early vole gets eaten by the bird.
I enjoy looking up into the twilight sky and observing man made orbiting objects. Satellites and Space Stations and rockets. A great place to find out what, where, and when to find these objects just before sunrise or just after sunset is the website heavens-above.com. You need to input your location on the planet in order to get predictions for visible passes of all of these objects. Iridium flares are extremely bright and can sometimes be seen through a thin cloud deck. I learned recently that the og Iridium satellites are being deorbited and replaced with new ones that do not have a predictable flare or sun reflection so they are becoming few and far between. I used to take the kids outside to watch when the space shuttle was either close to docking or just after decoupling with the ISS. To see these two chase each other across the sky was surreal.
Last night I read that Space X is adding a bunch of visible satellites to our earth orbit. An Atlantic article states that a year ago there were about 200 earth orbit objects easily visible to the naked eye. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/02/spacex-starlink-astronomy/606169/
Over the last 12 months Space X has added 240 Starlink satellites. These satellites are intended to provide high speed internet to every corner of the earth. https://www.starlink.com/. They want to add another 1500 in 2020 alone.
The predictions for visible passes of these satellites can also be found for your location on heavens-above.com. As well as a 3D depiction of their current locations. Example here:
https://www.heavens-above.com/StarLink.aspx?launchid=2020006&lat=43.0197&lng=-88.2916&loc=Unnamed&alt=0&tz=CST
As you can see these are all orbiting in a single plane and quite close to each other such that they appear in the sky in a “string of pearls” effect. I have not ventured out in the cold twilight of WI to observe these new objects but plan to do this soon. Maybe our hostess will be able to observe some of these objects on her early jaunts in the pre dawn hour.
I used to go hunting with my high school biology teacher, Mr. Holzer. At first, he had a sparrow hawk. It was killed by a hunter [not while I was with him].
Soon after, he found a fledgling barred owl that had been abandoned. He trained it in the classroom. While lecturing, he would grab a lab mouse by the tail from the terrarium on his table and swing it down on the top. Then he'd hand feed the owl, not missing a beat.
Soon, the owl was let off the perch to fly around the classroom. He would tie a dead mouse to my ankle and I'd put it out in aisle. The owl would grab it and try to fly away with it. He'd grab the bird, tether it to the perch and then hand feed it. That's the key thing, they only eat from your hand.
One of greatest things about owls for me is that, unlike soaring hawks, they just sit up in a tree and then swoop in for lunch, all in your view.
Owl's are impressive creatures. There is a Vermont Institute of Natural Science facility in Quechee VT. They have raptor enclosures, exhibit spaces, classrooms and interpretive nature trails. They say they rehabilitate more than 650 injured and orphaned birds annually. Some are injured severely and permanently such that they cannot be safely returned to their natural habit.
Love this photo. Still looking solidly like winter out there. I went for a walk this morning, temp was around freezing but the air and sky felt and looked like spring. Won't last.
Mr. Holzer would be a criminal today.
When I had to get rid of my chickens because of the whole parrot fever thing. I investigated the Oregon regs. Blah, blah, and if you want to get a raptor owner's license you must first apprentice to a master, licensed raptorist, for two years. Buzz kill.
I can understand keeping hunting birds out of the hands of gangbangers, crackers and other knuckleheads, but WTF? It takes an online course on safety, a couple of weeks wait, fingerprinting and fee to get your CCW permit. You don't even have to prove which end of the gun is the shooty part.
More oppression on us rednecks. Also, more trained raptors might cut down on feral cats, helping the songbirds. Think globally, act locally.
When it comes to owls, none is stranger than the Eurasian Eagle Owl. It is said that it hypnotizes its prey by staring at it with with its large orange eyes. A woman in Haines, Alaska has one as a pet. She often releases him so he can catch updrafts that allow him to soar in the mountains. At a prearranged signal, he always returns.
If you have shallow tunnels of mounded dirt in your yard, they were probably made by voles--not moles or gophers.
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