After walking my neighbor's dog around the neighborhood, I returned home to hear a ruckus of chickadees and a red-breasted nuthatch in a large, long-needled conifer of some sort across the street from my driveway. Hmmm.
I went into the house for my binoculars and walked across the street. The chickadees and nuthatch were still in a tizzy. When I put my bins up this Long-eared Owl (Asio otus) was staring back at me - wide awake and bright-eyed. Oh my gosh! I returned to the house for my camera.
In all I took seven photos. My camera is broken in my favorite shooting mode so I was super happy that these two nearly identical shots turned out as well as they did. I am not complaining.
I confess to being greedy and I went around the tree to try for another, perhaps less obstructed, view. I am ashamed to admit that I flushed the owl. I watched it fly to another nearby conifer and briefly it was in full view but much higher up. It took one look at me and flushed again. I relocated it in another cluster of conifers and this time I had enough sense to leave it alone.
