The Backyard & Beyond  - February 2005

    As some of you know, I love to photograph birds and as December 31, 2004, I have photographed 621 species in the ABA area (continental US and Canada). I am always striving to get more and better photos. It is my hobby and they come in handy for teaching bird ID classes.   
    Some birds are very hard to get a picture of due to their habitat, habits or various reasons. One bird I have yet to get even in my view finder is the Northern Pygmy-Owl. A cute little owl about 6-7 inches long. Well, our friend, Gary Handschug,  who is a beginning bird watcher got lucky as he noticed something out the corner of his eye and stopped the vehicle before leaving the yard. He and Joan did not know what they had seen and asked me over the phone. They thought it to be an owl for it turned its head almost 180º from the front to back position. They saw what looked like 2 "eyes" on the back of the head!!! I said it had to be a Pygmy-Owl and sure enough

when I saw his photographs there it was. One in particular was a beautiful shot of the Northern Pygmy-Owl complete with a young Townsend's Vole in it's grip that it had just caught. The vole as big as or bigger than the owl. I was jealous to say the least but hope this helps to hook both them into birding more.

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   Ard and I took a trip to Ecuador in November and I was in Hummingbird Heaven. We saw 50 species and most of them new. I got photographs of almost all of them (some not so good but at least identifiable). We saw 496 species in 15 days of birding (plus the 2 travel days) and 342 new species. We birded from 14,000 feet up in the cold Andes to the Amazon Jungle on the Napo River which was hot and muggy. If you are more interested in our trip we will be doing the program at the April VAS Meeting or you can check out the website for some photos. 

                                Happy Birding,   Sherry Hagen