Rare Birds?

We have had many visitors to our bird feeders this year, probably in part due to the extended drought.  However, the ones that have been the most interesting to us are the ones that don’t come to feeders.  A pair of them have been feeding in our pasture for the last couple of weeks.  They are very striking crested caracaras, and we have so enjoyed watching them forage for bugs, and perhaps mice, among the weeds and grasses.  They aren’t especially rare, but they haven’t visited our place before, so having them around has been a treat.

The caracara is a bird of prey in the family Falconidae.  It is found throughout Central and South America and is common to South Texas.  It looks like a hawk, but behaves like a vulture, feeding on carrion as well as large insects and small animals.  There was no carrion in our pastures, so we assume mice and grasshoppers were the quarry these were hunting.

   

So far, they haven’t come very close to he house, and there is nowhere I can hide to get better images.  These few shots are the best I have, but I’ll be watching to see if there’s an opportunity to get closer ones.

Another “rare” bird that we encountered recently is this wading eastern screech owl.  

John found this bedraggled specimen early one morning standing breast-deep in Rue’s dog swimming pool and called me to ask what to do.  (Since he appeared to be a young bird, we suspect he was one of the two that fledged here several weeks ago.)  Fortunately, Rue had already splashed most of the water out of the pool, so, though thoroughly soaked, he was able to keep his head above water. John pulled him from the water and attempted to place him on a nearby limb, but the poor little fellow was so tired and cold that he couldn’t perch.  So, John placed him on a towel under a laundry basket in the warm sun, and put a large rock on the basket so it wouldn’t blow away.  

Several hours later, when I returned from working dogs, I went to check on our small charge.  I was amazed to find basket in rock in place, but our bird nowhere to be found.  Screech owls are small birds, but who knew this one was small enough to escape through the holes in a laundry basket?!   We looked all around, but haven’t seen him since and assume he warmed up, dried off, and joined his family.