They say that "The road to the underworld is paved with good intentions." Well, a couple days ago, I found that the road to North Fork, Idaho, is paved with dead bullsnakes. Been so blasted hot that the tarmac is softened, and this snake (and others) had melted right down into the roadway.


This is looking straight down into a boreal owl nest box that I've removed the top from. The adult female often stays in the nest cavity, and has to be removed by hand in order to count eggs or nestlings, and to get data on the prey items. Incidentally, marten will sometimes use these boxes for nesting and rearing young as well.


Hope you enjoy this week's selections...

Jack

Jack, you always have super cool pics!
The owl is shacking up with the rat carcasses? Is that what I see?

Blessings!
Mark

A Osprey I walked upon while fishing in the bay yesterday here in Destin Fl.

Big Howdy Mark -

Yes. The male of the pair apparently does all the hunting for himself, for the female, and for the growing owlets. He's packing in the groceries early, and as the young grow, all the voles get used up. This photo is early in the season, so the groceries just stack up for a while.

son found another one.

Found this little guy while wading and catching no fish.

All we have are gray squirrels in my neck of the woods. After I spotted this one, I invited a friend over that had a good camera to document it. It was late evening in the shade and does not appear as bright white in the pics as it does in the sunshine but it apparently prefers to stay in the shade. It sticks out like a sore thumb and I fear it will become a meal for a redtail hawk but such is nature. Glad we got some good pictures of it.

Not much going on here but heat and drift smoke. Smoke makes for nice sunrises though.

Here's a historical site I drive by frequently when working.





If you can enlarge writing on plaque it's and interesting read.



This is the North Platter River just a few hundred yards north of the grave site.

Smoky air is the problem all out west here now, worse in some areas.

Jack, I have wondered how hot it is at your place. I bet the snakes seek underground shade now rather than sunny paths.

For the whole region, up here isnt too bad most times. Cools off nicely from the mountains at night.

I appreciate those who are good at landscape photography, it’s something I don’t have the eye for apparently as my shots never seem to show the story I’m trying to tell.
Here are a few pics from a birding trip a couple years ago in Belize.

Tray is that the close relative of the Ivory billed w/p ?
I was looking for a bird in the hammock at sundown.

Jack I can see 3 species of voles and mice are there more with the Boreal Owl ?
Are you going to keep us guessing ?

N50 I immediately thought the same of the Ivory Bill relative .

Tray takes great photos , landscapes and all. Love the Toucan .

Jack, fess up on the mice, please

Periodically, the boreals ate practically every species available (root voles, yellow-cheeked voles, singing voles, meadow voles, mountain voles, jumping mice, various shrews, and bog lemmings). What "ran the system" however, was always red-backed voles. If you're interested, see "Diet and prey consumption rates of nesting boreal owls, Aegolius funereus, in Alaska". Canadian Field-Naturalist 123(2):112-116.

Jack

It’s a Pale-billed Woodpecker, it’s definitely related to the Ivory Billed somehow.
There is a cormorant on the water if you zoom in enough.

Seeing a Toucan in the wild is one of the highlights of my birding career, kind of a surreal moment to see something like that.

Love that owl pics, cool to see behaviors like that. Have to wonder if at some point flys would become a problem in the nest as I’m sure some of those voles don’t get eaten.

Tray -

Phenomenal photos once again sir. Thank you.

Compared with the thousands of mosquitos and gnats, I think the blow flies are basically irrelevant. On the other hand, when the stench emanates from a nest box with a pile of rotting mouse carcasses, the black bears, lynx, and especially the marten, often invade, eating not only the detritus, but the owlets as well. As the brooding season progresses, the adult male apparently has a difficult time keeping up with prey deliveries, and usually, virtually every scrap gets consumed once the owlets are about 7 days old.

Jack

On a trail in the Smokies...

Pulled out of the truck stop in front of me must’ve forgot to latch to pin

Some pics from our Lake Michigan charter trip out of the port of Holland back in mid May. 1st and 2nd pics are of my son with a Lake Trout and a King Salmon.
3rd pic is his friend with another nice Laker. There were four of us on the trip and we ended up with 6 Kings, 2 Lakers, and 2 Coho. Great time!

Nice fish, definitely on my bucket list someday.

K-Zoo -

Appears to be a fine trip chasing the salmonids. Going back?

Jack

This pic is taken from my dock, the water is very low, I have never seen that much milfoil and lily pad growth. The top of the dock is 5' from the water, or more.

Will it start do stink in the boxes badly before the owls use up the voles?

[From Scout1
Will it start do stink in the boxes badly before the owls use up the voles?]

Generally, once the owlets are nearing about 7 days old, the consumption rate increases dramatically, and the larder is quickly consumed. If the food items linger, yes, they can become quite odoriferous (imagine that?) When that happens, black bears, lynx, and especially marten, will raid the box and consume the food and also the young owlets.

Jack

Gulo - We do a charter trip once a year. Will definitely be using this outfit again.

Is the owl pic from Alaska? Didn't you also say that red backs, " run the system" for marten?

Yes martentrapper. The boreal owl photo is from one of the many nest boxes I had along the Steese. And yes, the northern red-backed vole was likewise the primary food source for marten in Interior Alaska. Down here in Idaho, the marten seem to rely on a wider variety of small mammals, but in places, once again the "meat and potatoes" is the southern red-backed vole.

Jack

Thanks for your responses Gulo-Jack.
noticed the same that occurs in Kestrel boxes, their hatch was the same as when 13-lined Ground squirrels young start out of the burrows. there could be 20 finger size gophers for dinner.
Waiting for next weeks Photo Phriday results.

Kinda late to the party, but finally took time to sit down and do some pics.

Flying from Tanana to Ruby, interior Alaska.......Mt. Denali off my left wing. Pretty rare to see it from this far away.

Smoke from a fire along my route. Ruby back to Fairbanks. This one didn't get any attention from fire fighters.
July 10,11 weekend on the copper river dipnetting Reds (sockeye). Here is the wife with a good bunch. In the background is one of the fishing partners and his son dropping another out of the net:

Got the fish in the freezer then this weekend thawed some to make smoked strips, also known as squaw candy. Here are the strips, cut from the fillet, hanging to drip dry after coming out of the brine"

Last is me with the strips, and bellies, in the smoker and ready to start the smoke. This is a cold smoke so the strips dry as they smoke. Bellies just get a day or 2 then go into the freezer to be cooked as needed.

Hope the pics aren't too big!

mt -

Glad you chimed in. Brings back lots of good memories. Your candy looks fantastic.

Jack

The candy will be good but no where near Yukon king good!

Had a good friend in Anvik for many years that made the finest candy I've ever had from Yukon chums.

King strips from Holy Cross !! I've had grease dripping from my elbows ! Clearly the only way to eat salmon

Storage shelving for the little woman's paints and stains and urethanes.

Nice custom build, Gary. Nothing nicer than having your own customized things to make life convenient and enjoyable. Looks like maybe acrylic paint, though I can't tell. Just guessing by the bottles. Anyway, well done.

Thank you Sharon. The little lady knows what she wants. Those pictures were straight when I posted them, and they come up sideways. Go figger. The paints are Krylon and Rustoleum spray paint. We do the kindness rocks thing.

Come August we're going to scatter rocks from Florida to Spokane!

Well Ill be - never knew of this hobby. At a distance, not knowing what they were in the boxes, I thought of candies

Ought to be some surprised kids finding those !

Any art room customized with just the right furniture , or any other room of the house is wonderful.

We are wishing we had that. This is the living room!

MT that squaw candy looks fantastic
Gary, the rocks are great. My great-granddaughter paints them and puts them in parks and at the lake, very nice

The woman found some at the local park and really liked them. I suggested she start painting some and putting them out. I've created a monster.

Just before Spokane, drop one in Post Falls Id. I live up on the south side of the freeway on the mountain overlooking the valley.

We will do that!

Went on a nuisance beaver patrol with a buddy who does it for the logging company.
Stopped for lunch at his cabin on the Abitibi River north of the canyon.







Last two pics are the beach in front of the cabin-nice spot great pickerel and sturgeon fishing.