Saturday Birding - Busted Great Gray Owl Search
On Saturday, Steve and I decided to drive over to Teton Valley to look for Great Gray Owls. They often come down from the mountains to hunt voles in the valley in winter. There really haven’t been many reported this year, but we decided to give it a shot.
Kevin had a basketball game in the morning, so we all went to watch his team get slaughtered, but it’s not about winning right? Anyway, he did a good job and the game was entertaining. I then drove up to see if I could find a Lapland Longspur amongst the hundreds of Horned Larks on the bench. It took a while, but I did finally found one as well as a Snow Bunting.
Searching for Lapland Longspurs, Walker, ID 2010
I met Steve and we drove over to Teton Valley. Since the owls don’t usually come out until dusk we drove around town looking for other birds. We both needed a Black Rosy-Finch for the year, so we drove around neighborhoods with feeders and eventually located two birds mixed in with a few more Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches. We then drove around looking for other birds. We found a Merlin, several eagles and hawks and other common stuff. We also found an obliging Porcupine.
Rosy Finches (and one House Finch), Driggs, ID 2010
Merlin, Driggs, ID 2010
Porcupine, Driggs, ID 2010
As dusk approached we started driving along the wooded creeks in the valley hoping to stumble across Great Gray Owls. The problem was that the fog rolled in and visibility was horrible. We did find a few Great Horned Owls, but we never could locate a Great Gray. It was a fun night and I may try again before spring.
Fog, Tetonia, ID 2010
Kevin had a basketball game in the morning, so we all went to watch his team get slaughtered, but it’s not about winning right? Anyway, he did a good job and the game was entertaining. I then drove up to see if I could find a Lapland Longspur amongst the hundreds of Horned Larks on the bench. It took a while, but I did finally found one as well as a Snow Bunting.
Searching for Lapland Longspurs, Walker, ID 2010
I met Steve and we drove over to Teton Valley. Since the owls don’t usually come out until dusk we drove around town looking for other birds. We both needed a Black Rosy-Finch for the year, so we drove around neighborhoods with feeders and eventually located two birds mixed in with a few more Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches. We then drove around looking for other birds. We found a Merlin, several eagles and hawks and other common stuff. We also found an obliging Porcupine.
Rosy Finches (and one House Finch), Driggs, ID 2010
Merlin, Driggs, ID 2010
Porcupine, Driggs, ID 2010
As dusk approached we started driving along the wooded creeks in the valley hoping to stumble across Great Gray Owls. The problem was that the fog rolled in and visibility was horrible. We did find a few Great Horned Owls, but we never could locate a Great Gray. It was a fun night and I may try again before spring.
Fog, Tetonia, ID 2010
posted by Darren at
10:07 AM
3 Comments:
I guess I don't know much about porcupines. I didn't know they could climb trees. That's a cool pic.
I really liked the porcupine, too.
great images great grey's are tough to find! i've only seen one up close in my life and i only had my little point and shoot Kodak... I've never seen a porky pine around here cool image!
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