Winged Wednesday 10/13/2021

[Eric Gofreed]

I'll start off today's Winged Wednesday with some owl pics. In North America, we have two dark-eyed owls; the barred owl and the spotted owl.

The eyes are wide open on this brown eyed beauty. This is a barred owl. He hunts from a perch and goes after rodents when he sees them,

His eyelids are feathered! LOL, is that to deadened the sound from the eyelids closing? BTW, owls close their eyes my moving the upper eyelid down. Most birds species move their bottom eyelid to close their eyes.

The Spotted owl is closely related to the barred owl and also has brown eyes. Regrettably, his eyes are mot wide open. This is a Mexican spotted owl, a subspecies of the spotted owl.

This Eastern screech owl finds a roof drain satisfactory for nesting.

 

[AlanLichty]

Very cool owl shots Eric. These two species are having a bit of turf war up here in the NW with the barred owls moving on on the spotted owl territory as the old growth forests shrink due to logging activity. Barred owls are better adapted to the mixed forest lands that take over when old growth forests are cleared.

 

[AlanLichty]

My offering for today is yet another seagull along the Oregon coast. In this case at Shore Acres State Park near the Coos Bay area.

 

[Amy Nelson]

Red Tailed Hawk

 

[Eric Gofreed]

Very cool owl shots Eric. These two species are having a bit of turf war up here in the NW with the barred owls moving on on the spotted owl territory as the old growth forests shrink due to logging activity. Barred owls are better adapted to the mixed forest lands that take over when old growth forests are cleared.

The barred owls were once confined to the east coast, now they are ubiquitous!

 

[Eric Gofreed]

My offering for today is yet another seagull along the Oregon coast. In this case at Shore Acres State Park near the Coos Bay area.

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Love that shot. The waves are awesome. The gull is most likely a Western gull. Reddish legs and wings that droop below the belly.

 

[Eric Gofreed]

Red Tailed Hawk

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as expected, fabulous work, Amy

 

[Amy Nelson]

as expected, fabulous work, Amy

That is so very kind of you to say, thank you.

 

[Trent Watts]

Your owl pictures are spectacular Ben. Thanks for the inspiration.
Two of these owls were in parks in the middle of my city and the Saw-whet was in a bush right on my street. It is always so inspiring to see such beautiful creatures living in an urban environment.
They are a Great Horned Owl, a Northern Saw-whet Owl and a Long-eared Owl.

 

[Trent Watts]

Red Tailed Hawk

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Nice shots Amy.

 

[JimFox]

A seagull it is for me too. I captured this yesterday up in Grand Marais in Minnesota.

 

[Eric Gofreed]

Your owl pictures are spectacular Ben. Thanks for the inspiration.
Two of these owls were in parks in the middle of my city and the Saw-whet was in a bush right on my street. It is always so inspiring to see such beautiful creatures living in an urban environment.
They are a Great Horned Owl, a Northern Saw-whet Owl and a Long-eared Owl.

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love them all, Trent. Kudos on the long-eared owl. Similar looking to the much larger GHO

 

[Eric Gofreed]

A seagull it is for me too. I captured this yesterday up in Grand Marais in Minnesota.

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the colors shimmering on the water does it for me