We've talked about where to find local birds and how to photograph them. Some birds, such as the Burrowing Owl, are local for the breeding season, and as I've mentioned before, out on the prairies near me in Denver, US. This is an intense time of year for many birds as they've migrated in from other parts of the planet, or if not, just because it is breeding season. We've had numerous photos in this thread indicating just how often a bird needs to leave the nest to collect food for their young, some hundreds of times per day to feed those hungry mouths. They need to build muscle and bulk to fledge and, if migratory, get ready to file hundreds or thousands of miles in the late summer or autumn to their winter grounds. So very intense indeed.
Obviously, this guy is having a rest, and I've not been out at the "active" time to watch them catch insects and small mammals but it highlights the fact that protein-eating birds can have some downtime during the day as you can get a ways on high energy, high calorie foods, as opposed to seed eaters, where it has to be fairly constant. That said, during the breeding season, the local small mammal population probably takes a good hit as it still takes a lot of high value food to get the offspring bulked up enough to move on. If you watch Barn Owls, they're out a LOT grabbing voles and other small mammals to bring to their young, who often eat the animal whole. It's quite the sight!
Sitting and sitting by
Ray Harrison, on Flickr
On the lookout
