Northern Harrier Struggling to Expel a Pellet

  Except for owls, all raptors have a crop for excess food storage.  The parts of the prey that are indigestible are formed into a pellet in the gizzard and then regurgitated out of the mouth.  These pellets contain hair, feathers, exoskeletons and sometimes (in the case of owls especially) the bones of their prey.  I’ve noticed with many raptor species that expelling a pellet can be a difficult process, bordering on traumatic.  Such was the case with this juvenile male Northern Harrier. I was watching this bird through my lens but not planning on getting any quality photos because the bird was strongly side-lit.   But when he began trying to expel a pellet I couldn’t resist clicking away.  Because of the side-lighting and relatively soft focus the images are not of high quality but I thought the behavior was interesting enough for a blog post anyway.  All of the photos in this series are posted in the order that they were taken.    The beginning of the struggle to expel the pellet    Here the harrier is shaking his head from side to side to try to dislodge the pellet   But with the effort he begins to lose his balance on the perch    And almost falls  over backward    He begins to recover    And then falls forward    Begins to recover again    Still recovering    Recovered, but still with the pellet stuck in his mouth    And finally the pellet has been expelled.  As luck would have it my buffer had filled up and I missed…

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The Short-eared Owls of Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge

  Male Short-eared Owl with a vole for the family  Red Rock Lakes NWR is simply a wonderful spot on this ol’ earth.  Located in SW Montana about halfway between Yellowstone National Park on the East and Interstate 15 on the west, it lies in a beautiful high elevation valley and the setting is stunning.  It’s not for the faint of heart though as the weather holds many potentially nasty surprises and the access to the refuge is primitive at best.  But that’s one of the things I love about Red Rock.    In late June we had the place mostly to ourselves, which is ideal for me.    Coyotes howling, other  mammals  in abundance, birds plentiful, wildflowers galore, spectacular mountain scenery, amazing sunrises and sunsets, weather surprises, bad roads to limit visitation, isolation and especially those incredible Short-eared Owls.   I love this place!    Female at the nest with one of two youngsters  On our second day there we found a pair of nesting Short-eared Owls with two youngsters.  The nest was at the base of a sagebrush within a few feet of a road.  I have a (very unscientific) theory as to why these birds would make their nest so close to a road with regular traffic.   Coyotes are very common on the refuge – we heard them howling often and would see them but they were seldom close to any road.   They seem to avoid roads whenever possible.   A nest on the ground would be very vulnerable to coyote predation.  So I wonder if the choice to build…

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