Big Maple
There's a big broadleaf maple like the one in the background here behind our house. I couldn't guess its dimensions, but it is enormous. Technically it is in our neighbor's yard, but since it towers over and is much older than all of us it's more like we belong to it, a feeling I particularly experience in the fall, when it creates the most epic cleanup responsibilities. We often hear barred owls in it at night. Somehow we have never laid eyes on them, but I expect it is just a matter of time. We see all other kinds of daytime birds in it, of course. Cooper's hawks like to hunt in it and it is a popular place for racoons to spend the day before raiding our pond at night. All of the other very big trees nearby are firs, and I think the combination of evergreen and deciduous habitat, as well as the nearby greenbelt and wetlands, all play a role in the extraordinary suburban birding around here. This is from the owl family down the bicycle path. Barred owl, Olympia, WA.
Big Maple
There's a big broadleaf maple like the one in the background here behind our house. I couldn't guess its dimensions, but it is enormous. Technically it is in our neighbor's yard, but since it towers over and is much older than all of us it's more like we belong to it, a feeling I particularly experience in the fall, when it creates the most epic cleanup responsibilities. We often hear barred owls in it at night. Somehow we have never laid eyes on them, but I expect it is just a matter of time. We see all other kinds of daytime birds in it, of course. Cooper's hawks like to hunt in it and it is a popular place for racoons to spend the day before raiding our pond at night. All of the other very big trees nearby are firs, and I think the combination of evergreen and deciduous habitat, as well as the nearby greenbelt and wetlands, all play a role in the extraordinary suburban birding around here. This is from the owl family down the bicycle path. Barred owl, Olympia, WA.