RT @: In our April issue: Laura Erickson tells how winter finches give clues that spring is on its way: #birds 
RT @: In our April issue: Laura Erickson tells how winter finches give clues that spring is on its way: #birds 
In our April issue: Laura Erickson tells how winter finches give clues that spring is on its way: #birds 
This Great Blue Heron caught a biggie! The boat was moving, with people focused on cranes, so I don't know if it managed to swallow the fish. Taken at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, from MV Skimmer out of Fulton, TX.
I do hope the poor fish is dead at this point. Photo taken at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, from MV Skimmer out of Fulton, TX.
This shows the unique slit pupil as well as I've been able to capture it.
West Ship Island after the BP spill
West Ship Island after the BP spill
Night's silent hunters are nearby
A barrel shape, a big round head and a heavy mass of sticks: These are the only details you have time to absorb as you drive by a field with a big oak tree.
That shape is a great horned owl, and the mass of sticks is its nest for the year. A pair of red-tailed hawks built the nest and raised their young in it last summer. This year it belongs to a pair of the big owls, which have had their big yellow eyes on it since early in the winter. (A quick aside: Those feather tufts on top of the owl's head are neither horns nor ears. These protrusions help the owls look like a tree snag and possibly escape notice as they doze during the day.)
Because great horned owls aren't builders, they're eager to find an abandoned nest built the year before by a hawk, bald eagle, crow or even great blue heron. The most powerful owl in North America, they are the first owls to engage in courtship and breeding each year, starting the process in late winter with hoots and calls in the night. A female lays her eggs in late February or early March in our region, then starts the monthlong process of egg-sitting, even as late winter rages around her.