An Uneasy Truce

Now here is a picture you don’t see every day. I caught this red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) perching on top of a swing set at our neighborhood playground. Not that seeing this raptor is uncommon, but seeing it sitting so close to birds that it normally doesn’t get along with is unusual. The weather was blustery and cold, and obviously the hawk didn’t feel much like hunting. Strangely, the crows didn’t seem to want to move him along either. Normally, crows will harass a bird-of-prey to drive it away from the area. I guess everyone was concentrating more on staying warm.

Red-tailed hawks are one of the most common raptors you’ll see in Texas. Their range extends to almost all parts of North America, and they inhabit nearly all types of habitats, including deserts, grasslands, mixed forests/fields and even urban areas. Somewhere along the line they inherited the nickname of “chicken-hawk,” though they don’t actually attack chickens that often. Females are also usually a bit bigger than the males, a condition called sexual dimorphism.

Learn more about this fascinating bird at Wikipedia, and at DesertUSA.com.

Whooooo Are You?

Back in May, Amy and I were lounging in front of the TV, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw a large object fly in front of our breakfast room window. Knowing it was much larger than your average songbird, I went to investigate. What I found was a young screech owl clinging to our fence. Unsure of what the owl was going to do next, but hoping he’d stay still long enough, I grabbed my camera to snap a few photographs.

It looked like the owl was attempting to fly up into our apple tree, but didn't seem to know how to fly well enough. After a few snapshots, I decided to leave it be and see what happened. As it turns out, our breakfast room window was a perfect observation spot. About an hour later, we found it up in the tree and to our astonishment, a sibling and a parent were there as well! There are two phases—a grey phase and a red phase. These owls were in a grey phase.


With an adult in the area, it's a good thing I retreated when I did. My father has been attacked multiple times by screech owls when attempting to get close looks at juveniles. Both times he took cuts to his head and face. These creatures mean business when they feel their young are threatened. So if you encounter one, do not attempt to get too close, or you may be attacked and injured.

Although screech owls usually nest in cavities, Amy and I wonder if this family might have been in a more traditional nest. There is a nest in the top of the tree that I’ve yet to get up to, but I’m hoping to investigate the nest soon as the owls are now long gone. I never really found any owl pellets around the apple tree, but there is a lot of leaf litter under the tree and I wasn’t too keen about looking too hard with any adults above my head.

The Eastern Screech Owl (Megascops asio) is a smallish, nocturnal owl which mostly inhabits woodland areas. These owls can be found all over the Eastern half of the United States and into parts of Canada and Mexico. Their diet consists of small rodents and mammals, insects, worms, lizards, fish, amphibians, and small birds. Their call is a wavering trill followed by a monotone trill. You can listen to one here. Learn more about these nocturnal hunters at the Owl Pages.

A Friend or Relation?

For the past month or so, we’ve had the pleasure of the company of an Eastern Cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus) in our backyard. I’m a bit surprised that our efforts at making our backyard critter friendly have netted us this unexpected visitor. Not that cottontails are an unusual site in suburban neighborhoods—they're actually quite a common site on Amy and my walks—but this one has stayed mostly in our yard for almost a month now. This might be due to the fact that she was so young when we first encountered her (see the photo that my wife took the first evening we spotted her. Look how tiny her ears are!).

Eastern cottontails can be found over most of the eastern half of the United States. They are generally brown or grey of coat and have white tummies and tails that are puffy and white on the underside.

Their preferred habitat provides cover when needed, and since they are herbivores, includes areas with plenty of grasses for feeding. Our rabbit has dined quite a bit on dandelions and the other odd weeds that I can’t seem to remove from our yard. However, I’ve noticed that my tender bonsai tree leaves are also good snacking material when I was foolish enough to leave them at ground level! Many people say that it’s not a good idea to feed wildlife as they can become dependent, and their foraging skills can erode. Although we generally try to let nature run its course, we can’t help but throw vegetable scraps on the lawn now and then to keep her interested in staying.

We almost named this rabbit “Twitchy” because sometimes she just bounces all over, changing directions and hopping in funny ways. If I can figure out how to post a video of it, I’ll try and put one up.

The life expectancy of an Eastern cottontail is relatively short given that they often fall prey to larger predatory animals. This is one of the reasons rabbits tend to reproduce so quickly. However, these rabbits are not without their own bag of tricks. They are very fast and can change direction easily to confuse pursuers and leap great distances (8 to 15 feet) to get out of harm's way. It’s a good thing we have a sturdy fence and plenty of overhanging trees for cover. I guess it’s not so surprising after all that this one has decided to stay so long! Find out more about the Eastern Cottontail at places like Wild Texas and NatureWorks.

Baby Opossum

Unlike what most people think, we think opossums are kind of cute. Especially when they're still little! The word opossum comes from algonquian wapathemwa meaning "white dog".

This one stole our hearts immediately. Its not common to see opossums out during the day, but we watched this one scrounge around our yard for several weeks. This is unfortunately a sad tale. We never did see the mother, but found the remains of a sibling one morning; the result, we're guessing, of a bird of prey attack. Sadly, this little one only survived for several weeks more. Mother nature can be hard to bear witness to sometimes.

Look Into My Eye

A while back I posted some photos of a blue dasher and complained that you couldn't see its eyes very well. That has changed as Amy managed to snap a pretty good one of this dasher. Dragonflies and damselflies are wonderful creatures can be seen around most neighborhoods, but especially around sources of water.

I don't know how territorial these insects are, but I had to laugh a little the other day when we got two males at the pond at the same time. They took turns shooing each other away. We really need to get some new horsetail plant as our last one didn't survive the winter. These beauties deserve a proper perch down close to the water. It doesn't hurt that it'll make them easier for us to spot as well.

Night time is Quiet Time...

...except for opossums! Forgive the quality of the picture, but night photography is not my camera's strength (or maybe it's not my strength). I caught this opossum watching me from the fence top as I emptied the trash. I only noticed him because his white face was illuminated by my garage light.

Seeing these creatures around our house makes me happy. Several years ago, I trapped and had a possum relocated who'd been staying in our backyard under the gazebo. Only after the "offending" creature was forcibly evicted did I bother to look up and learn about these interesting animals. Come to find out, these neighbors provide some very beneficial services.

Didelphis virginiana, or the opossum as it's commonly called, is the only marsupial found in the United States. About the size of a large cat, opossums are mostly nocturnal. Their threatening appearance (they have 50 teeth!) is mostly just for show. When an opossum is faced with a more powerful opponent, they usually play dead, hence the phrase, "playing possum".

Opossums are omnivorous and adventitious hunters, eating things like slugs, snails, insects (like cockroaches, blech!), carrion, fruits and grains and supposedly even rats.

Opossums don't have a strong family bond. Males and females do not stay together to raise the young, and the young become independent fairly quickly. Some of this might be due to the fact that opossums don't have a very long life span.

Learn more about the opossum by visiting Animal Diversity Web or googling them on the Web.

As Pretty as a Painting

I've got a pretty one for you today. This is a Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) that came to my garden as I was watering my plants. As you can see, this particular butterfly is very showy. As with a number of brightly colored insects and bugs, the Pipevine is poisonous to eat, so predators learn to stay away.

The Pipevine Swallowtail is in the papilioninae sub-family and inhabits Central America and much of North America.

The adult butterfly can be identified by its metallic blue to blue-green hindwings above and its 7 highly visible orange spots over a blue background on the underside hindwings. The caterpillar is a nasty looking thing; all reddish brown (almost black looking) with rows of red or black tubercles (tubercles look like little spines) on its back.

A female lays eggs on the undersides of leaves. The caterpillars feed on this host plant when young. Eventually they form a protective covering called a chrysalis so they can survive the winter and transform into a butterfly that emerges in the spring.

The adults feed on nectar from a range of flowers, many of which are found in gardens. Find out more about this exquisite butterfly at such Internet sites as www.butterfliesandmoths.org.