A hawk makes a kill...

Yesterday I shared a short video segment that I recorded at Forest Hill Nature Area.

Today I wanted to share just a couple of photographs from the same walk. 

As Shara and I walked along the edge of the property's South Woods, we noticed a Red-Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) fly up from trailside and land in one of the trees.  It stayed in the tree for about 10 seconds and then flew away.

A Red-tailed Hawk in distant tree

This photograph is nothing to write home about.  It was taken from about 50 yards away with a lens more suited to close subjects.  The real excitement came when we approached the spot where the hawk had been on the ground.

Plucked feathers indicate a kill site

The ground beside the trail was strewn with feathers.  Lots of feathers.  Obviously, the hawk had been on the site of a kill.  While Red-tailed Hawks often eat mice and other small animals whole, with larger animals they use their beak to pluck the prey's fur (or in this case feathers) before feeding.

Several of the feathers on the ground were quite distinctive such as the spotted feathers to the left of the photo and one iridescent purple/blue feather.  My first impression from the feathers was that the hawk had made a kill of a Wood Duck (Aix sponsa). 

A little more searching confirmed this as I found the remains of a Wood Duck drake (adult male) a few feet away on the other side of a tree.

This Wood Duck drake was killed and partially eaten by a Red-tailed Hawk

The breast of the duck was completely plucked and most of the meat had been eaten from one side of the breast.

Although Red-tailed Hawks have been persecuted in the past because people thought that they preyed on large numbers of game birds and game animals (such as rabbits), the majority of their diet is made up of small mammals such as mice and voles.  Overall, between 80% and 95% of their diet consists of mammals (mostly rodents).  Birds (of all types) consist of at most 10% of their diet.  The remainder of their prey consists of insects, reptiles, and amphibians.  Red-tailed Hawks will also occasionally feed on fresh carrion such as road-killed deer.

I don't know if the hawk flew away from the kill because it heard us (we were still not visible when it flew) or if it was just done with its meal.  Either way, the meat from the duck will not go to waste.  The hawk may have returned after we left to resume feeding or another animal would eventually find it and scavenge the remains.

Although I have found kills by hawks (or owls) in the past, this was by far the freshest.  It was pretty cool to be able to piece together this story so easily.

Nature Happens - Shopping for Lunch at the Lansing Mall

On Sunday (14 FEB) Shara and I stopped at the Lansing Mall to buy a few things and have lunch.  As we were driving along the outside of the mall we noticed a large flock of American Robins (Turdus migratorius) feeding on the ornamental crab apple fruits.  Then Shara looked into a spruce tree alongside our truck and noticed something staring out.

Cooper's Hawk (Photo by Shara LeValley)

Cooper's Hawk (Photo by Shara LeValley)

That's a Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii).  The Cooper's Hawk belongs to a family of raptors known as accipiters.  Accipiters typically live in forested areas and have short wings and long tails that allow them to maneuver swiftly through trees.  Many accipters prey on other birds.  This Cooper's Hawk was intently watching the flock of robins.

When we exited the mall about two hours later Shara noticed the Cooper's Hawk sitting on the ground.  It had successfully made a kill and was feasting on a robin.  While people wandered the mall, "nature" was happening right outside.

Cooper's Hawk with kill (Photo by Shara LeValley)

Cooper's Hawk with kill (Photo by Shara LeValley)

Cooper's Hawk with kill (Photo by Shara LeValley)

Earlier that morning I had debated about whether to take my camera or not.  I should know by now that if i don't have my camera there is a good chance that I will end up regretting it.

Let me tell you 'bout the frog and the snake...

I have lots of stories.  When I show one of my photographs in a classroom, I often have a story that goes along with it.  Unfortunately, many of my best stories don't translate well to the written form.  This is because my storytelling usually has a physical component - I don't just tell a story, I act it out.  So until the day that I become a better writer (not likely to happen), or I start to record videos of my stories (even less likely to happen), many of my stories can only be experienced in person.

There are a few, a very few, of my photographs that can almost tell the story on their own.  One example is this sequence of pictures from 2006.

I remember discovering this Common Eastern Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) struggling with a Gray Treefrog (Hyla versicolor) in the woods at Mission Creek Woodland Park.

I have made a habit of discovering interesting things not only by sight, but also by smell and sound.  My attention was drawn to this pair by a horrible grunting squeak that I couldn't replicate if I tried.  It was not a sound that I usually hear in a forest or anywhere else for that matter.  It was so unique that I had to search for the source.  When I first spied the snake and frog in the leaf litter, the snake had a hold of a single hind leg of the frog.  This was enough...

 A garter snakes jaws are lined with many small needle-sharp teeth.  They help the snake get a grip on struggling prey.  By walking its jaws along the frog's body, it was quickly able to position the frog in the preferred head-first swallowing position.  The frog had no real defense for this - it tried to puff up its body to make itself to large to swallow, but the garter snake is an expert on frogs.

I think I will let the snake show you.

Surpise monarch predation

Yesterday (Sunday) Shara and I stopped into her classroom to drop off her new classroom pet and to tag and release a couple of Monarch butterflies that had emerged from their chrysalises late on Friday.  When we got into her classroom we could see that something was not right.

There were no Monarchs fluttering in the pop-up habitat.

When we looked inside this is the scene that greeted us.

The destruction at the bottom off the habitat

Discarded wings from a dead Monarch

Every single chrysalis had been pulled from the top of the container and and its contents devoured.  All that remained of the two adult Monarchs was a pile of wings.

What caused this destruction?

Sometime between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning a mouse discovered the enclosure, climbed to the top of the habitat, chewed an entry hole and slipped inside.  After eating every living thing inside, it climbed back out the same entry hole and disappeared.

The total loss was two adult monarchs and about a dozen chrysalises.

It could have been worse.  We still have 10 chrysalises at home in a different container.

Almost every year we lose a few caterpillars/chrysalises to parasites.  Sometimes we have a few that are deformed by a protozoa infection.  Losing almost half of our year's crop of Monarchs to a mouse was something that we never expected.

Aquatic Invertebrate Photography

Last month the powers-that-be at the Chippewa Valley Audubon Club got together to discuss our next year of programming.  I volunteered to do a presentation on aquatic macroinvertebrates for our May 2014 meeting.  I do a lot of programs on aquatic macroinvertebrates in local schools and in the community.  However, all of those programs are of the hands-on variety.  I don't have slideshow or Powerpoint program - what was I thinking.  So it looks like between now and next May I need to develop a program that shows some of the organisms that can be found in our local waters. 

Yesterday was my first attempt at getting some of the photos that I will need.  I used my wife's digital zoom camera for these pictures - I do not have a macro lens for my DSLR and don't want to mess with extension tubes, tripod, etc..  It looks like I am going to need to purchase a digital scope to get pics of some of the smaller organisms - SWEET! 

Giant Water Bug - not sure if this one has parasites or if those are eggs, some species are back brooders.  In which case the female lays eggs on the back of the male, but I usually find those earlier in the Spring.

Another view of the same Giant Water Bug

Dragonfly nymph - possibly a Green Darner

Same dragonfly nymph from above

Backswimmer- not the light colored back, when seen from below this blends in with the sky.

Backswimmer consuming a small waterboatman