Sanguine Tenacious Tidings

Yellowstone day 25 and trotter horses

Moran's paintings are wild and woolly. Just think of standing in the wilderness with paints and an easel producing the art he exhibited in Washington. Not so many tourists around then. They had to make their own trails. Probably packed things in on horses, mules and donkeys. Now that is real camping.

As for the Osprey. They eat live fish. Like owls, they have a reversible outer toe. It helps them grasp with 2 toes in the front and 2 toes in the back. A better hold on slippery prey.

Because their species occurs world wide it makes them unusual. After studies by many taxidermists a classification for the species has not been agreed upon.

Ospreys are possibly the fish eagle describing a mythical Greek king who was transformed into an eagle.

There is no such thing as a chicken hawk. People sometimes speak of the Red Tailed Hawk as a chicken hawk. Perhaps an occasional free roaming farmers chicken in past times was seized by a hawk but not as a general rule. Like owls they eat small rodents and sometimes small birds. Owls hunt at night and Red Tails hunt in day light so it would seem the rodent populations would be well under control.

Usually they mate for life. You can pick up raptor sighting forms at the ranger station. It is easy to fill out and does make a difference in keeping track of the population.

Don't forget the yearly citizen bird count from Cornell University also a good population count.

In our township we have had lots of raptors visible in the last few years but this year they do not seem to be so prevalent. I wondered if the extreme cold from last winter drove them out of the area.

Well virtual is nice but today I'm off to reality land to watch the trotters at the fair. I will still be doing lots of hiking.