The number of species identified during the annual bird count in Howe was impressive

As Brett made his way through the thick grove of trees, I began to see occasional owls flying from one tree to another. As I waited at the end of the grove, I noticed that several Barn owls and two Long-eared owls had landed in one tree and motioned to Brett to check out the tree. As he approached the tree, several owls circled him and two flew over me.

As the owls flew back to their original spot, two Prairie falcons started dive bombing them, but the owls were quick enough to escape into the thick brush. It was tough getting an accurate count of the owls, but we were able to identify Barn, Long-eared and a Great-horned owl along with several hawks and falcons in the grove. We had been given permission from the landowner to walk the grove for the annual Howe Christmas Bird Count.

It was just one of several memorable experiences that we had on January 4, while five other members of our team worked the area around Howe. Brett and I recorded 28 species of birds, while the seven of us identified and recorded 41 species. The largest number of one species was 788 Horned larks followed closely with 759 Common ravens.

The lack of Rough-legged hawks available for the count was disappointing, with 21 combined between all of us. A few years ago, we were counting over 300 of them. This year, the 28 Red-tailed hawks were the most numerous raptors. Traditionally, this count has been a hot spot for raptors, but we only located a single Ferruginous hawk, one Cooper’s hawk, two Sharp-shinned hawks and two Bald and two Golden eagles. The Prairie falcons were about average with 18, while the Northern harrier numbers were up with 15. Three Northern goshawks were a great addition to the count.

Another memorable experience happened while Brett and I were traveling the foothills east of Howe. We were locating Horned larks and Gray-crowned Rosy-finches and searching for a pair of Golden eagles that nest in the cliffs. Brett located five Bighorn rams.

“Look at those beauties!” he exclaimed. “I have never seen them in the wild before!”

We watched and photographed them for half an hour as they grazed and climbed the steep cliffs until they topped the ridge. While hunting rocks last May, I had run into two large rams near the same area and had told Brett about them, so we were not really surprised to see them.

The morning birding had been a little slow as several previous hot spots did not produce much for us, but it was very windy and some of the birds could have been hiding. So, finding the rams and getting permission to walk the grove of trees where we found the owls gave us some memorable experiences.

We finished the count by 1:30 and met together at the Howe Community Center to tally the birds that we saw. Brett and I did not see a single Chuker, while the other two groups saw 55. We were the only ones who saw Mallard ducks. The Virginia rail count of six was high and the raven count was extremely high, but nobody saw a Crow.

The trip home was an adventure for me and Brett. After we left the count area, we saw three Ferruginous hawks and another 20 of them near Mud Lake. We also had two large flocks of Crows fly over us and we saw a Great blue heron. We agreed that we had a very memorable day.

For you fishermen, this cold snap has started forming ice on Ririe Reservoir near the dam. Hopefully, we will be ice fishing on it during next week. Fishing from the shore has been good for some fishermen for the last few weeks. Here’s hoping it continues for the cold-footers.