winter woes sunday

[Glen Warchol <glenwarchol at sltrib dot com>]

The raptors at Farmington Bay seemed desperate to find prey.

(Which set the stage for a fine day of birding.)

A Harrier nailed a mouse in front of us (where some grass broke through the
snow) and immediately was engaged in a dog fight by two Red Tails.  The
Harrier dropped the mouse and one of the red tails retrieved it. Then the
Harrier, joined by a second harrier, chased the red tails off to the North.

A hour later we watched a male kestrel eat a mouse. He was six feet away and
didn't seem to mind our attention, probably too cold to waste the energy to
move. He  stripped the meat off the head and finished the rodent by sucking
the tail down like a strand of spaghetti. How much energy producing meat
could there be on the tail?

Finally on the way out, we saw a Barn Owl on a fence post with his eyes
squinted against the glare. He looked miserable and ignored us. A guess:
owls have to hunt day and night to get enough to eat when the ground is
covered-- or that it's too cold at night to burn energy hunting.

Reminded me of the winter 1998 (i think) when Farmington also was covered
with snow. I was able to drive up next to exhausted barn owls and take their
photos. 

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