I believe it's the same bird observed at 5:23 on Monday morning, here. In the comments there, Quaestor and rehajm said owl. "Owl," "Yes, totally owl."
Jaq said: "I think that we are going to have to use Bayesian logic to figure out the bird, and before I zoomed in my first thought was buzzard, but after zooming in, I am betting my case of whiskey on owl," and then "Nah, I was thinking about it and I think that time of day, milieu, and the general silhouette has me changing my bet to a night heron flying home after working the night shift fishing," and then, "the tail is not right for a night heron."
Quaestor returned to say: "Night heron? Not enough beak or neck showing Furthermore, a night heron's legs trail behind the deck feathers in flight. I'm sticking with an owl, probably a great horned owl. They aren't usually associated with lake environments, but they are opportunistic hunters. This one could have spent the night hunting ducklings."
Rusty concurred: "Yeah. Goin' with owl. Good catch."
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38 comments:
One bird is no big deal
Dive bombing.
owl
Owl's are fascinating, beautiful, creatures. Recently, while sitting around a fire in Homosassa Springs, a great horned owl flew past us at arms length. We never heard a thing. Their flight is absolutely silent.
There was an owl in the morning on the backyard lawn, staring but not moving. I put him in a cardboard box to produce comfortable night and magic-markered it WOL for the rehab people, who showed up a few hours later.
Who are you? Who who who who!
Yes Iman, in high school I got Terri Caggianelli in big disruption trouble when I whispered to her in class something something Roger Daltry. Who? Right…
…we have three flavors of owl that visit the yard. Can always tell they’re around when there’s no squirrels and no birds. They piss me off when they hoot me awake but lately we’ve come to an arrangement- they stifle Edith when I’m sleeping and I don’t warn their prey…
I'm still going with Alligator lizard.
Lately I've gotten hooked on the "nest cams" at https://www.robertefuller.com/pages/nest-cams. Fuller lives in Yorkshire and has set up an ingenious nest cam in the hollowed-out portion of a large tree to watch a series of owls, kestrels, and other birds as they produce, feed, and protect their chicks. It's beautiful and mesmerizing.
There are fishing owls. And regular owls that fish.
Owls. They're not just out for mice anymore.
Fishing owls aren't quiet. Because Fish don't have ears.
"I put him in a cardboard box to produce comfortable night and magic-markered it WOL for the rehab people, who showed up a few hours later."
Yeah. You have to make allowances for those rehab folks. So many of them are dyslexic.
Yes, it looks like a Great Horned Owl in flight. We have them in our neighborhood due to the rabbit population. and even had a nest with at least 2 owlets this spring.
"Fishing owls aren't quiet."
I'm not saying this is impossible. (Hell, there was I time I'd scoff at a Floridian sighting a six-foot Nile monitor in his backyard.) However, I've not found a fish owl species native to the Western Hemisphere. They're all African or Asian, and most at least 14, are Southeast East Asian or Austral Asian.
I'm still favoring owl, the silhouette is a good match (particularly for the snowy owl, but a snowy in Wisconsin in June is unheard of) but this repeated over-water flying behavior is troubling.
I live out in the country on an acreage that used to be a farm, so there is a big red barn on my property. There is actually a Barn Owl who lives there, and in the evening you can sometimes see him perched on top of the barn. I also have a Great Horned Owl on my property. He is hard to see, but you can hear him "hoot," and usually you can hear another owl "hoot" back at him, like they were talking to each other. I really like owls.
My Cousin Vinny
best lawyer movie ever
owl scene
RCOCEAN @ 8:00
I thought that Bald Eagles were strictly fish eater until I saw one slam a duck on the water.
Wing tips look too pointed for an owl. JMO.
Recently used the AA Amazon link to buy this for the coffee table up north: Field Guide to Dumb Brids</a Could help ID the critter
Northern Harrier?
I went to cross my creek a few years ago and happened to glance left, and found myself eye-to-eye with a barred owl, gazing placidly at me from a cedar branch about 6 ft away. It was the middle of the day. Now he's wallpaper on my phone. I've had them glide past me at night when I'm walking the dogs, and it's true, you don't hear them - but you sense them going by, the air disturbance I guess. And in the forest behind the house, they'll set up the call in the late afternoons, 3 or 4 of them, hooting across the woods at each other. Owls are cool.
"Northern Harrier?"
That's a true possibility, though the relative wingspan still favors the owl conjecture. Given the evidence, I see no way to resolve the question. Video would really help. Harriers have a distinct flying style.
Request to Althouse:
If you see this bird again, take note of how it flies. Harriers like to glide over their hunting grounds at low altitude with their wings held with a pronounced dihedral. Owls tend to glide with the wings held level or with a shallow anhedral.
"I thought that Bald Eagles were strictly fish eater until I saw one slam a duck on the water."
Bald eagles are members of the genus Haliaeetus, the sea eagles. Though fish are the staple diet of each of the four species within the genus, they are all opportunistic predators. The largest of them, the Steller's Sea Eagle (max. weight 10 kg versus a max of 6.5 kg in our bald eagle) take seal pups from time to time as well as seabirds upto the size of the short-tailed albatross.
"[I] found myself eye-to-eye with a barred owl, gazing placidly at me from a cedar branch about 6 ft away."
Barred owls sleep with their eyes open.
--- ...make allowances for those rehab folks. So many of them are dyslexic.
Believe rh was making a Winnie-the-Pooh reference.
RIP, Brian Wilson.
I also vote for owl.
OWL??? That's a good troll. Pretty sure it's a swallow. Likely a Tree Swallow or Northern Rough-winged. Was it calling at all? Like a twitter? Download the Merlin app. It's free, published by Cornell Lab. Pretty useful at I'ding birds from sound, although it is not perfect.
Hawker Hurricane doing a strafing run.
This is a Swallow. Probably a Tree Swallow.
Tail not forked enough for Barn Swallow, but too forked for Rough-Winged Swallow or Cliff Swallow. Purple Martin and Bank Swallow might be possible, but Tree Swallow is more likely.
The one from Monday is also a Swallow, but the only species I can rule out from the photo is Barn Swallow. My guess would be Cliff Swallow on that one, based on impression.
Eagle Lake, northern California. Sunrise, opening day. Entire shoreline lined with fishermen, many hung over from last nights revelry.
All the way down to the right, from the land, an eagle casually approaches.
All heads turn right to watch it. Eagle swoops down, grabs a rainbow trout , and leisurely flys down the shoreline dangling the fish in it's claws.
Every head turns to the left following the eagle progress.
It was like an animated movie.
No doubt every fisherman there has repeated this story over the years.
And, I swear, that eagle had a smile on it's face.
I agree that video would help a great deal, but so would the approximate size of the bird. The owls mentioned, harrier, herons all are far larger than a swallow or martin.
I asked one of our local experts (published several guides) his thoughts, and he, too, said the wings are too narrow and pointed for any owl (or a harrier, which also has a longer tail).
His best guess was a Purple Martin, which does have the best match for the notched tail. I see quite a few Tree (and Violet-green, I'm west of the Rockies), Northern Rough-winged, and even some Bank swallows, and on none of those do I identify as having as notched a tail as on this bird. And a Cliff swallow has almost no notch.
So if Ann could give an approximate size, that would really go a long way to its identification.
We've had Barred Owls on our property for nearly 20 years now. Each year, a new batch of owlings.
I'm looking at the latest crew (four of them) right now ... sitting on a branch just off our back deck.
They've become family.
Yep , if it’s a smaller bird at close range it’s some sort of swallow, which incudes purple martins.
Hard to see ID marks but looks a lot like common nighthawk t me. Time of day and setting agree. Owl unlikely and tail is weong.
Jim K, Nighthawks are similar but the bend in their wing (the wrist, if equivalent to human bodies), is further away from their bodies than the bird in this photo.
Compare:
https://feederwatch.org/birdspotter-2018/common-nighthawk-rockets-by/
Here's a set of in-flight photos of the Swallows of the Eastern United States:
https://chicagobirdalliance.org/blog/2023/6/22/identifying-adult-swallows-in-flight
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