Cruising roads looking for raptors

We drove to Rudyard yesterday hoping to see a few owls and who knows what else. We stopped for gas first and saw a raven diving at something on the Rudyard water tower. Yep – it was our first (of five) Snowy Owls for the day.

We also managed to see a few Northern Shrikes, which are songbirds who are predatory, but lack the raptorial feet of hawks and owls.

A distant adult male Snowy Owl. Actually the bird was about a half mile away, so I was “stretching” the cameras ability.

One of our favorite old barns with a Snowy Owl perched atop the roof.

Probably a female.

And finally a Bald Eagle, showing off it’s deadly feet.

And finally, I’ll be giving a talk this Wednesday, but it is also available via Zoom. If you are in the Ann Arbor area, the talk will be at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens on Dixboro Road.

Until next time…