Tuesday, April 17, 2012
JK
Sweetbriar Screech Owl
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Author Archives: JK
A Red-tail At The Spring Festival
Thursday, April 12, 2012,
More Sweetbriar goodness here. Last Saturday, Sweetbriar Nature Center had their annual Spring Festival. I came by to take some pics. The place was hopping. And I’m not talking about just the Easter Bunny. We drew a huge crowd this year.
I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. It was the day before Easter and Sweetbriar had a jam-packed schedule of fun for everyone. There were games, stories, wildlife programs, face painting, and egg hunts. The egg hunts were the big favorite. For more pics of the festivities, check out Sweetbriar’s Facebook page. I posted some pics there as well.
My favorite part, as always, was the wildlife presentations. It was a beautiful day with lots of sun, perfect for taking pics. This Red-tailed Hawk was just one of the day’s attractions. Such majestic birds, don’t you think? JK
In Good Hands
Tuesday, April 3, 2012,
I stopped into Sweetbriar Nature Center a couple days back. I stop into Sweetbriar fairly often but on Sunday I was there to hear a lecture on the talon strength of various raptors. That’s raptors as in birds like falcons, hawks, or owls – not those wonderful critters that Steven Spielberg brought to the big screen. While I was there, I got to meet some of the new charges in the rehab room. This is one of the perks to being a volunteer there. You get to see all the really cool stuff. 
As chance would have it, two of the cooler new patients were raptors. The bird at the top of the post is a baby Great Horned Owl. These guys are beautiful from the get-go. Super cute when they’re young, and then just plain magnificent as adults. Check out the size of him. I’ve got a cat that isn’t any bigger. This “little” one apparently has some soft tissue damage in one or both of its legs and has difficulty standing upright. He’s greatly improved since his arrival but he’s not quite ready for the great outdoors just yet. Don’t be alarmed by those eyelids. That’s its nictitating membrane. It’s sort of a second eyelid.
On the other hand, there is definitely something wrong with this bird’s eye. This adult Cooper’s Hawk has an infection and its eye is both very swollen and clouded. It was really nasty looking on Sunday but I’m told it’s already looking much better. Another feel-good story at Sweetbriar. JK
A Merganser Reflected on the Duck Pond
Saturday, March 31, 2012,
This is not a terrific shot, I know. And neither is the next one. Well, to be accurate, these are both pics of the same shot. The second one is flipped, mostly because I really like the reflection. In fact, I think the reflection looks better than the straight shot. I was shooting through some foliage, as you can probably see, but I’ve learned to grab my shots whilst I can. Mother Nature doesn’t wait on us photographers. She has a great disdain for the paparazzi. JK
JK
A Bobby Vinton Titmouse
Sunday, March 25, 2012,
Here are a couple of shots of another Tufted Titmouse I encountered at Morton Refuge. These guys are generally gray or slate-colored but in this light, this one almost appears to be blue. These are very engaging little birds, only marginally larger than Chickadees, but a bit shyer. Still, once they give you a good once-over, (sometimes it’s a twice-over), they are one of the species of birds that will accept sunflower seeds from your hand at Morton. That such fragile beings could come to trust creatures such as us is, to me, nothing less than amazing. JK
