Date: 4/19/24 4:23 pm From: Mark Holmgren via groups.io <maholmgren33...> Subject: Re: [sbcobirding] Costa's Hummer
Your dead owl: When only the wings are viewable, Burrowing and Western
Screech-Owl can look very similar. And, we are in the period when
Burrowing Owl could be moving through. But your photo exposes the upper
part of one foot to the heel. On Burrowing Owl that vertical part of the
foot is slightly longer and more sparsely feathered than on WESO. And on
this bird the toes are feathered. This is a Western Screech-Owl, as Hugh
suspected.
Mark Holmgren
San Marcos Pass
On Fri, Apr 19, 2024 at 4:00 PM Hugh Ranson via groups.io <zonetail1=
<gmail.com...> wrote:
> Peter Gaede and I spent some time around the Pride of Madeira patches at
> Elings Park this afternoon (see yesterday's post for directions). Peter got
> a quick look at the Calliope. There's a gorgeous male Costa's Hummer that
> was consistently going to the upper patch of flowers (area described by
> Florence this morning). Other highlights were a rare Crotch's Bumble Bee, a
> large California Common Scorpion, and a flyover Mallard (rare at the park!).
>
> Biking home along Las Positas, I came across a flattened small owl on the
> road. I'll put up photos temporarily on my Flickr page. Let me know if you
> know what species it is. Western Screech would be the most likely
> candidate, but it's quite brown. I just read that about 7% are a brown
> morph, so I wonder if it's that.
>
> https://www.flickr.com/photos/159344319@N03/ >
> Hugh Ranson
> SB
>
>
>
