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...