Sunday, November 11, 2012

Long-eared Owl visits Springwells Park

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.