Friday, September 26, 2008

Out of the Garden

Last weekend while out of the garden we saw a most the unusual sight of a flock of blackbirds chasing an Osprey out of their territory. The poor Osprey looked fairly beat up with missing tail and primary feathers. It didn't seem to mind the mob that was escourting him up and down the ditches lining the road. It continued to hunt with the escorts all keeping their distance unless an occasional brave blackbird would break the ranks and dive close at the Osprey. We were ever hopeful that the one spot of clear sky would eventually open over us so we would have better viewing conditions.
However we were dodging rain bursts most o fthe time. Happy Skywatch Friday.

15 comments:

  1. Lisa,

    Love, love love the clouds! Wish they were here!

    Fantastic story of what birds will do to protect their flock! Last night we heard the owl that lives in our largest oak hoo hoo hooing It's always a signal that fall really is here. That and the doors and windows are open! I looked up Great Horned Owl and read that Crows will taunt them during the day! Yelling at them for hours. It seems that the Owl loves a tasty dish of Crow. It made me laugh.

    Gail

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  2. I enjoyed hearing about the birds. I watched blackbbirds gather on a telephone line and suddenly a redtail landed on the pole. Poof, the blackbirds vanished. Guess they pick their battles carefully.

    Great SkyWatch. Have a good weekend.
    Marnie

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  3. Those must be some of the clouds that are heading this way for the weekend. Very dramatic, and how cool about the osprey and his 'escort!'

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  4. We saw so many of these bird flocks along the way to AZ. What an awesome sight.

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  5. Beautiful photographs....beautiful sky......

    I have never seen anything like that Lisa....how lucky you were to see it......wish I had been there....

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  6. Interesting observations!

    The clouds are beautiful! Thanks for looking up!

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  7. I know you enjoyed seeing the birds and thanks for the story of them. The sky photos look ominous. Glad there were no damaging storms.

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  8. Flocks of birds like that always look great and sound even better when they come close enough, I would love to see an osprey, but the travel is too far to go and see one, maybe something to try next year.

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  9. Great sky shots, Lisa.
    For some reason, we have had flocks of starlings visit our yard the last two mornings--what a racket they make! I'm hoping they're just on their way somewhere else and don't plan on staying here.

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  10. Lisa,
    How do you make these fabulous photos? Obviously it pays to keep the eyes up.

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  11. Beautiful, moody sky shots Lisa. What an interesting little drama you got to witness with the osprey and blackbirds. It's amazing the things one can see when paying attention to the natural world around us.

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  12. The clouds look pretty good to me too, Lisa - so please send them here when you're tired of them!

    I had only a vague idea of what an Osprey looked like so went and looked it up.... seeing blackbirds chasing a raptor with a six-foot wingspan must have been one wild sight!

    We occasionally see Screech Owls in our trees down here. The owl may screech at night, but I've seen crowds of Blue Jays circling the owl while screeching loudly in the daytime.

    Thanks for the cool photos, Lisa!

    Annie at the Transplantable Rose

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  13. Nice capture of the flock of birds.
    I don't seem to be able to grab them and keep focus!
    I guess there's truth to the saying, "strength in numbers."

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  14. Lisa, I've passed an award to you. Please read my last post...

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  15. It always pays to look up at the clouds..you never know what's waiting
    to be observed!

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