Here's two versions of the same pic I took of B and DC mating this morning:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mbez/8600061169/#
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mbez/8600060431/#

Mark, that closer-cropped one is a really striking composition! Nice!!!

Sounds like you had an interesting birding day! How about that Grouse pic?

my dinky little videos actually came out MUCH better than the photos - it was dark out (!!!) and the birds were not right in my face (I was in a blind) and my Lumix was on maximum zoom and even so just barely coping. I'm figuring out how to upload the videos to youtube. Will post link(s) if I can manage...

here are just a few of the "grouse" (aka the extremely endangered Greater Prairie Chickens) during their mating ritual. This is accompanied by two sounds...one is like when you blow air over a beer bottle neck - the other is a higher noise.

The last one of these I'm only including because of the bird on a post in the background. You can't tell because of the distance but that is a big rough-legged hawk! They were all over the place.

Oh...and those things in the background of the third photo - that look like big cartoon rabbits? they are not. Those are Prairie Chickens in full mating display.

Best whirlyhead ever

it looks like a DRILL

and thank YOU, Gayle. I was thinking of you the whole time. Your birds.
Well, the turkey was mine.
And the marsh harrier that I really wanted to see but that flew behind some trees, that was my bird

My day started out at 5:40 am in a blind in a farmer's field in central Wisconsin and then went to Necedah. By 1:30 pm I had seen 7 Greater Prairie Chickens in full booming, stomping, inflating, strutting display (7 rough-legged hawks watched too!!); 7 (what's with the 7s?) whooping cranes, including one embarrassingly botched copulation; lots of sandhills, including a big airborne "V" of them; a number (maybe 7?) of bald eagles (including two ginormous nests); a bunch of red-headed woodpeckers and, to top it off, a resplendent wild turkey. Favorite moments were the prairie chicken that slipped on the ice; the rough-legged hawk that seemed to catch something but turned out not to have; the aforementioned defective whooper copulation; a huge eagle standing on an icy lake, just standing; the beautiful color of the sandhill cranes; one particularly GLOWING red-headed woodpecker and the turkey, of course, which was, shall we say, taking.
Its. Time. To. Cross. The. Road.
I may or may not have adequate photos of the grouse. Mostly I was watching.

thanks for the great whirlyhead!

I guess Mme. Owl got exasperated with the bugs and worms her mate was schlepping in.
Beware the PO'd female screech owl. She will be coming after bigger prey next...I can see her trying to shove Chris, kicking and hollering profanities, in there!

http://gargravarr.cc.utexas.edu/owl/2013/20130327/video/20130327-202950-CDT.mp4

March 27 – 8:29 PM CDT – Mme Owl entered the nest box dragging behind her, with one foot, the largest kill this year: a dove of some kind (...the dove is only visible in the first 40 seconds, but I included the full movie for the general interest of viewers). It looks to me to be too large to be an inca dove. A mourning dove has been suggested by one viewer (thanks RCG). However, I see neither at my bird feeder or in my neighborhood (which doesn’t rule out the possibility that they are here, it just makes me think of them as unlikely finds). Especially in the case of the inca doves, the aggressive white-winged doves appear to have displaced them. If what Mme Owl brought in was actually a white-winged dove, and the wing-edge markings appear consistent with that possibility, that would make this the largest prey item I’ve ever seen any of my owls deliver to the nest in 13 years of observation.

Typically weighing 4.9 oz, a white-winged dove is within the carrying capacity of a screech owl which, if memory serves, The Book of Owls states will take prey as heavy as themselves, typically 5.8 oz, with females generally weighing more than males.

If it is a white-winged dove, and one or both of my owls has learned to hunt them (as opposed to finding one that was already dead), then the food problems are over for this owl family. And the local white-winged dove population could certainly do with some thinning.

That said, I really don’t know what type of dove it is. Opinions welcome.

For many a year Orville sat by the scrape,
Along came Orion to help him escape;
Down to the ground he fledged with a whack,
Poor Orville in pieces is not coming back.

Excellent, Joyce! Thanks!

looking like an animated owl about to start talking

a nice video showing all four of the hungry owlets and Mr. Owl arriving with a moth and not having the foggiest idea how to feed an owlet.
http://gargravarr.cc.utexas.edu/owl/2013/20130322/video/20130322-021401-CDT.mp4

yum

a few from yesterday. I do recommend the daily viewer (access through the calendar dates)
I saw some deliveries, but I'm wondering if that objet in the last picture is something Papa Chris hurled in.

My guess a Papa Chris Gift !

You're right, Linda! I found out -- it was from him!

a few from yesterday. I do recommend the daily viewer (access through the calendar dates)
I saw some deliveries, but I'm wondering if that objet in the last picture is something Papa Chris hurled in.

Sorry to say that the city of Rochester is a one peregrine falcon pair city.  Unlike Toronto, the falcons in Rochester have a line-of-sight view of every building in the city and the surrounding area.  From the Times Square Bldg, Beauty can see the BS location.  In fact, Beauty came into the city from the BS location probably because she could see the falcons in the city.  From the Kodak Tower, a falcon can easily see Kodak Park and points north.  The buildings in Rochester are not tall enough or dense enough to allow another pair to use the city.  This is only my opinion.

well, it sure seems to be the case in Rohester...I can only figure that it is because of what you said - the line of sight. We have so many pairs, relatively close together, and have for so long...in the downtown area, yes, there are a lot of tall buildings.  The distance between the 5800 north site and the Uptown Theater falcons at 4400 N, however, is a mile and a half, a bit more, without much obstruction at all...

if you use the daily viewer (click a calendar date http://gargravarr.cc.utexas.edu/owl/2013/) there are 500 still shots for each day that you can go through fast or slow, forward or backwards. If you do that for yesterday's date, it's constant movement! Owlets crawling around nonstop! Here is one of the only ones where Mme. Owl seems to have composed a tidy shot for a nice couple-day-old family photo...think again!