05-13-13 Field Note

05-13-13 Field Note

May 13, 2013

Kate Stone's Field Note shows a long eared owlet, an atypical saw-whet owl roost, and a chukar.

Kate Stone Field Note 05-13-13

Douglasia montana Kate Stone Field Note 5/10/13 Passerine migration increased this week with the arrival of the lazuli bunting (below), vesper sparrow, grasshopper sparrow, chipping sparrow, northern rough-winged swallow, brown-headed cowbird, dusky flycatcher, and common poorwill.

poorwill. White crowned sparrows (top) continue to migrate through in high numbers. A brownheaded cowbird female (bottom) starts the hunt for another bird’s nest to parasitize.

Male house wrens and spotted towhees waste no time in setting up territories and singing to attract females.

females. An American wigeon rested with green-winged teals along the Bitterroot River. A lone American avocet waded in a shallow slough.

A northern saw-whet owl flew out of this clump of mistletoe while I examined a pile of droppings on the ground. After I stepped away, it immediately returned, perhaps intent on recovering a young vole dropped under the tree.