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Click Below For Bird Of The Month:

March 2022 Bird Of Month
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Sharp-shinned Hawk

The Sharp-shinned Hawk is a daring, acrobatic flier which often appears in a blur of motion and disappears in a flurry of feathers. These raptors have distinctive proportions: long legs, short wings, and very long tails, which they use to speed through dense woods to surprise their prey, typically songbirds. They may also pounce from low perches. Songbirds make up about 90 percent of the Sharp-shinned Hawk’s diet. Birds the size of American Robins or smaller (especially warblers, sparrows, and thrushes) are the most frequent prey. They carry their prey to a stump or low branch to pluck it before eating. Backyard bird feeders do attract Sharp-shinned Hawks from time to time but studies indicate that feeders don’t greatly increase a bird’s chances of being taken by a Sharp-shinned Hawk. When flying across open areas they have a distinctive flap-and-glide flight style and their small heads do not always project beyond the “wrists” of the wings. The tail tends to be square-tipped and may show a notch at the tip. Their typical call is a high-pitched, frantic kik-kik-kik which is used as an alarm call, during courtship, and by young birds just before they fledge. They’re easiest to spot in fall on their southward migration, or occasionally at winter feeders.

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Loess Hills Audubon Society meets at the Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center, 4500 Sioux River Road the first Thursday of the month during the months of October thru May at 7:30 P.M. The first meeting of the year is the annual potluck at Stone Lodge in Stone State Park at 6:00 P.M.

Each of these meetings includes a quality program of various subjects. The public is invited and welcome to attend these meetings. Check the Meetings Page for information on upcoming programs.

Birding outings occur monthly. The public is invited and welcome to attend these outings. Check the Outings Page for information on upcoming outings.

Loess Hills Audubon Society
PO Box 5133
Sioux City, IA 51102
https://lhas.tripod.com/
 
 

Mission Statement

The Loess Hills Audubon Society exists to educate individuals and the general public, to enjoy and promote birding, to support ornithology, and to be an advocate for wild areas and environmental issues.

 

"Loess Hills Audubon Society is a Chapter of National Audubon Society, Inc."

Last Month's Bird Of The Month

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Snowy Owl

Thick feathers for insulation from Arctic cold make Snowy Owls North America’s heaviest owl, typically weighing about 4 pounds. They spend summers far north of the Arctic Circle hunting lemmings, ptarmigan, and other prey in 24-hour daylight. In years of lemming population booms they can raise double or triple the usual number of young. Unlike most owls, Snowy Owls are diurnal and they’ll hunt at all hours during the continuous daylight of an Arctic summer. They may eat more than 1,600 lemmings in a single year. Both sexes, but particularly the males, make low, powerful, slightly rasping hoots. They’re often given two at a time but may include up to six hoots in a row. These can be heard for up to 7 miles on the tundra, and other owls often answer with hoots of their own. Snowy Owls do a lot of sitting. They sit still in the same spot for hours, occasionally swiveling their head or leaning forward and blinking their big, yellow eyes to get a closer look at something. During irruptive years, which may be attributed to lemming cycles farther north, they can flush south throughout the lower 48 states and are a bird that can get even non-birders to come out for a look.