Heron Update

It's a juvenile Great Blue Heron. The Son says so.

Wild Kingdom

The COG took this picture and I think he may blog about it too. This fellow has been in our pond all day. He's gone now that it's dark and rainy. We're not sure what kind of heron it is. Possibly a Great Blue Heron, but we aren't sure. We've written to the Son Of for an identification.

Owl Update

Son of COG spent some time observing the owls last night and he told me that the owl blob I saw wsas actually one of the parents. The baby owl was a different owl-shaped blob slightly lower in the same tree.

He had a bit of excitement when one of the parents flew right over him - close above and went to feed the Owlet. He said that he knew owls make no noise flying, but it startled him all the same that the one flying over him was completely silent. No soft whoosh of wings or anything.

I found a link online where you can hear the sound we've been hearing, just click on the option for 'Owlet calling for food.'

http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Bubo&species=virginianus

I love living here in the wild kingdom.

Great Horned Owl

For a couple of months we've had a strange bird sound outside at night. It's a kind of little shriek that repeats every 30 seconds or so, for long periods during the night. James has identified it as a Great Horned Owl - a young one, who is asking its parents for food. Tonight James actually found it. It's at the top of a tree in the marsh across the street from the house, not far from the road. I've just been out to look at it. It's just an owl shaped thickening at the top of the tree -- but the shriek is definitely coming from there. Even though you really can't see anything, it's exciting to see the blob, when all we've had is the sound for months. I downloaded this picture, but I haven't found a loop of the sound that I can copy. I'll work on that. We have a program that has the sounds of all the native birds, maybe I can copy it off of that.

Sea Lions and Harbor Seals and Whales, Oh My.

Among the many pleasures I didn't mention about our trip down the Oregon coast was the Grey Whales we watched near Coos Bay. The picture was taken by the COG and is of some combination of California Sea Lions, grey Harbor Seals, and Steller's Sea Lions on the rocks. They were pretty remarkable in themselves - barking loudly, draped on every available rock, and making the water the water churn with their swimming and diving.

However, it was the whales that were most amazing, and there are, alas, no pictures of them. There was one young one quite close in, who kept spouting and breaching the surface every few minutes. I got great views of his back, his tail etc. Slightly farther out there were many more whales and, with binoculars, you got a good view of the same sorts of behaviour. The grey whale is a baleen whale, so poses no threat to seals, although someone there told us there had been a killer whale within the week in Coos Bay. The grey whale migrates, but the young ones - probably what we were watching - often stay in this area all year.