Saw What?
Apparently, one or two saw-whets occasionally spend the winter on the island, roosting in the same tree each day and eating lots of mice at night. So it’ll be interesting to see whether this one sticks around. We’ll try opening the mist nets after dark this evening, in hopes of banding it after it wakes up (fingers crossed). For now, I’ve never seen a sleepier bird. It just sits there, eyelids drooping, feathers fluffed out, tucked into a sheltered cypress branch. Makes you want to cuddle it.
I was fortunate enough to see one, along with a hundred other folks, in a residential neighborhood in Tempe, AZ a few years back. Such a cute little guy. We noticed that it had impale mice and rats in the tree for food storage too. This summer I heard one calling at night in Round Valley, Idaho, but never did see it.