UFO EXPLODES THE SKY!!!!!

Another benefit of our owl monitoring project is there we are, under the stars, comets, meters, milky way and all celestial phenomenon and other-wise anthropogenic sky objects like the space station, planes and satellites. If we are not looking at owls, we are looking up and on Saturday, November 7,we had a real surprise as a UFO soared through the sky.  Here's an internet pic of how it all began for us while we were waiting between net runs.

It shot over the east ridge (little Chico Creek) a bright and fast moving light, followed by a huge widening halo-like footprint which narrowed but continued behind the missile (we discovered later-a nuclear capable Trident missile!), then pinwheeled and spiraled, and after many minutes a hazy pinpoint light it faded into the sky- a truly spectacular sight.

Our sky show was contrary to our owling experience that night- there were none captured! Our first 0 owl night and unfortunately we had 7 guests that missed the owls - but would have missed the missile had they not been out in the night. Something is always brewing at the Reserve owl station!

OTHER OWLS ON THE RESERVE, THE NORTHERN PYGMY OWL

As we continue our fall monitoring or NSWO, one other exciting thing about being on the Reserve are the numbers of different species we might detect aurally or visually. Lately the Northern Pygmy Owls (NOPO), a mostly crepuscular/diurnal species has been calling from the trees above our saw-whet nets.

Last night we heard a pair dueting. They are incredibly petite little predators, mostly hunting songbirds, but opportunistic taking small mammals and insects too. I love this video that I found on youtube (https://youtu.be/yoRB3BlT3U0) that shows many of their behaviors . The toot/trill series the owl calls at the beginning is very common with the Reserve owls too.