Just a great horned owl on twilight patrol.
A red-tailed hawk with her prey, in pen and ink.
An acorn woodpecker just pulled a fat grub out of a black oak snag.
I took this picture in an area that burned in a wildfire in 2008. When it comes to wildfires, woodpeckers are the big winners!
Today on Wild Wednesday, I took these pictures of four Bull Elk near Cache Creek.
I see elk in this area along Highway 20 most of the time when passing through.
Seeing these beasts never gets old.
This was perfect for Wild Wednesday!
If you travel down Highway 20 to Clear Lake look for the elk around Cache Creek on the south side of the road.
I see a lot of strange things in the woods, but one day this summer I saw a creature out there that I had never seen before. It was a cat, but not a mountain lion or bobcat and it was pink. I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right, it was the “Pink Panther.”
The Pink Panther up a tree. In case you don’t believe me, here is photographic evidence.
Yep, the Pink Panther was spotted by yours truly along Highway 3 on the west side of Trinity Lake. I don’t make these things up folks. There he was up a tall Ponderosa pine tree, way up!
If you look hard you can see him in the pine on the right side of the road.
He was about forty feet up the tree. I don’t know what he was doing up there. I don’t know how he got up there. He wouldn’t come down and he wouldn’t talk to me. So I took his picture and left him to his business.
I went by a few weeks later and he was gone. Keep and eye out, he may be coming to a tree near you!
Do you see it?
Mary and I watched this Douglas squirrel on a recent outing. He was chowing down on maple seeds.
The maple seed crop was enormous in this bigleaf maple tree. There were many happy squirrels around.
A bigleaf maple leaf just beginning to show a bit of fall in the tips.
Wildlife at the drive up window. The praying mantis city dweller. He was praying for a bite of my tacos!
One of the remaining osprey keeps watch from a nearby oak tree.
The surviving ospreys have seemed to rally this week after the helicopter incident I blogged about last week, Wild Wednesday … A Death In The Family. For most of the week only one young osprey was in the nest. It occasionally left, but would return later. It sat in the nest calling for food.
The young osprey waits.
After a few days, I saw the second young bird return. Then both called.
The other young osprey awkwardly comes in for a landing.
Waiting patiently for breakfast.
Eventually, I saw the parent osprey. She came in with a fish for the young birds, but didn’t give it to them. She flew to the edge of the tower and started calling the fledglings. When the youngster moved toward her, she lifted off and flew up river. She was training her young fish hawks.
She brings in a fish for teasing her youngsters into following her. Her behavior has inspired my confidence in their future success.
After examining the photos I took of the dead osprey, I’m pretty sure it was the male bird that was struck by the helicopter blade. Now, mother osprey soldiers on. No news yet on the Fish and Wildlife warden’s investigation.
This osprey put it all on the line defending its young, and paid for it.
Sorry, no wildflowers this week, only a sad story. If you’ve followed my blog for a while you may have seen some of my posts about the ospreys that nest and raise their young on a large electrical tower at our mill site. The tower, perched near the Sacramento River, overlooks prime fishing habitat. These birds are practically mascots for our operation. Almost without fail ospreys raise two offspring in the tower nest every year and have done so for decades.
The osprey family 2015, just a week before the tragic incident.
However, a week ago last Monday, while in our office we heard the sound of a low-flying helicopter. This isn’t unusual except for the helicopter wasn’t just flying over. It was lingering. I strained to look out my window to see the helicopter, but it was just out of sight on the north side of the office. My window faces west. Then I saw an osprey buffeted by the rotor wash being blown off to the southwest. Next, a large bird wing fluttering to the ground outside my window. That got me out of my office and headed for the north end of the building. When I made it outside, the helicopter was gone. One of our foresters, our lead research scientist and her assistant met me. Our scientist was extremely agitated and told us the helicopter had struck one of the ospreys. As we walked out into the parking lot, the mill superintendent walked out from the opposite side and yelled to us. Then he reached under one of the pickups and pulled out the body of the dead osprey. He informed us that a number of the mill workers had seen the incident and were just about in tears. Fortunately, our research scientist got the aircraft identification numbers.
The osprey was cut to pieces defending its nest.
She recounted to us how the ospreys became agitated because the helicopter hovered so close to the nest. All four birds were at the nest, both parents and two offspring. The parents took off and were responding defensively. One of the birds began diving on the helicopter trying to drive it away from the nest. On its fourth pass at the helicopter, it was struck by the blades, severing both wings and plummeting to the ground.
California Fish and Wildlife was contacted and a warden responded. He collected the remains and took statements. We are awaiting the results of the investigation.
I’ve been watching all week, hoping to see the three remaining birds at the nest. So far I’ve only seen two return, but most of the time there’s just one. Both of the offspring can fly and they come and go to the nest. Our biggest concern is that the young are unable to fish on their own. Hopefully, the remaining parent will be able to keep the youngsters fed and that this helicopter incident doesn’t result in three dead ospreys. I’ll keep you posted.
If you want to see the previously osprey post just click on the osprey tag below and they’ll come up.
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