How I have been spending my summer...

[CouesWhitetail]

As part of my work as a wildlife biologist this summer I have been doing owl surveys in the Pinalenos and Chiricahuas. We use live mice to find the nests and young. Basically you offer a live mouse to an adult (usually the male) and he will take it and go feed his mate or young. The nests can be very hard to find other wise. Anyway, it's been a great year for the owls up on Mt Graham and here is a selection of some video and pics from there. Hope you enjoy it!!

 

It might take awhile to buffer or download, so please be patient.

 

http://www.coueswhitetail.com/Hollywood_Webb_3.wmv

[Dave_D]

WOW! Incredible video, thanks a ton for sharing with us!

[Mrs125coues]

Awsome Amanda!!! Thanks for sharing.

[tjhunt2]

Peg and I just viewed it and thought it was great to say the least. To get them to take the mouse off the hand had to be just an awesome feeling. I said it once before and I'll say it again. You're AMAZING Amanda and I don't know how you show up to so many events and still accomplish all the work you do. You certainly are one of the hardest workers I know.

 

TJ

[Little Creek Calls]

Did you do any post fire work in the Chiricahuas? How did the fire impact the birds?

[CouesWhitetail]

Did you do any post fire work in the Chiricahuas? How did the fire impact the birds?

 

They only started letting us back in last week. Some owl territories burned really hot, some seem really good. In my experience with major fires (like the one in the catalinas), the owls can really benefit from some of these huge fires. As long as their roost areas and nest areas don't burn up too bad, they can continue to use those patches of trees even when all around was incinerated in the fire. The owls are heat intolerant and so they need some dense pockets of trees to stay cool. Usualy the places they select for roosts and nests are the coolest, moistest forest around and so those areas burn less hot. In the Catalinas, the owls had an amazing year (in terms of reproduction) post Bullock and Aspen fires. I think the rodent populations explode post fire and the owls take advantage of it. However, even though they reproduce well, it's possible the survival of those young is lower when they have to leave and find their own territories because there is less forest for them.

 

The Chiricahuas have greened up amazingly since the fire. I took some pics to post but haven't resized them yet.

[stanley]

Great stuff Amanda!!!!

 

S.

 

[bonecollector]

What a great video.

[Pine Donkey]

That is some amazing video! What a great summer.

[MT. CAT]

Thanks for sharing Amanda great stuff

[CouesWhitetail]

thanks for the kind comments everyone

[SirRoyal]

That was a very cool video Amanda, thank you for sharing!

[lucky2hunt]

Incredible Amanda! Pretty cool way to spend your summer!

Roger wants to know how you get the mouse to stay on your hand/arm

[CouesWhitetail]

Incredible Amanda! Pretty cool way to spend your summer!

Roger wants to know how you get the mouse to stay on your hand/arm

 

 

It's not a problem, that particular owl takes the mouse so fast that there is no time for the mouse to really go anywhere. You could see in the video where the owl almost takes the mouse off my hand before I even put it out there. This owl had a baby to feed and was very eager to take mice.

 

and just an fyi, the hand feeding isn't normally something we do...we just gave it a try this last visit. it was pretty cool to interact with a raptor that way! My friend got a couple tiny punctures (like pin pricks) in her hand from the talons. It's an exercise in trust...one miscalculation by the owl and you lose some skin or muscle. They have very serious talons.

[.270]

looks like fun. everything likes mice. oughta see what a northern pike does to one. a friend of mine found a stunned owl in the road that had been hit by a car. like a dummy he picked it up to get it some help. while they were friving down the road it woke up and stuck it's talons in his leg. tore him to pieces. do you ever get to eat an owl? Lark.