Uri's Blog Notes from 44.483N, -92.261W, planet Earth

A star-studded night with Owls

Eastern Screech Owls! What I heard from around midnight until dawn this morning was not screeching. Rather it was an eery conversation between three owls, each of whom was perched very near the house. The first calls can only be described as a kind of plaintive "baaa-ing" answered immediately by a musical, two-note trilling that sounded very soothing and reassuring....sort of like "ooooooooh kaaaaaaaaaay." In our four years here I have never heard this sound. The Eastern Screech Owl audio samples on the internet are not really what I heard, but the tone and tenor of the sounds matches, so I can only guess that these were indeed Eastern Screech Owls of a very musical nature. Their calls, which are described by ornithologists as "whinnies and bounces" vary greatly. I don't care that I didn't get much sleep last night, it was thrilling to stand by the window watching Leo's shooting stars accompanied by the songs of owls.

Cedar Waxwing Collective

As I walked into the woods and beneath the crown of a huge hackberry tree, I was pelted with berries and droppings from what I quickly realized was a huge flock of Cedar Waxwings gorging on berries above me. Their unmistakeable high-pitched whistling gave them away. I was happy to be pelted and to be so close to one of the most exquisite and fascinating birds around here.

Waxwings are so-called because of the red spots on their wing feathers that look like drops of red wax.

The thing I find most fascinating about them is their social cooperation and sharing which is so different from other flock birds who may band together for their common interest in finding food or protection but will compete vigorously for the food they find. In contrast, waxwings will move about in flocks, and locate food sources where there is plenty of supply for the whole flock.

They will settle into the upper branches of a tall tree near the food source, sort of as a staging area for their feeding operations. Then the flock will rotate in and out of the food source sequentially and orderly instead of the chaotic competition so common to other bird species. A similar pattern of taking turns in groups is used for bathing when water sources are limited, such as to a bird bath or small puddle.

Here are two waxwings sharing as part of a mating ritual.