Owl keychain

Sorry Mr. snowman I guess you get a break. I couldn't resist the cute little owl at the checkouts of the coach store.

Whoooooo are you? Who, who. . .

Sorry, I couldn't resist, lol. ;0) I LOVE owls and this one is sure a sweetie!

Owl Pellet Macro Monday

I went looking for my Barred Owl friend and I couldn't find him, but I found a bunch of pellets. You know, after the owl eats a critter it barfs up the fur and bones and such, that's a pellet.  Owl barf, lol.









Those are tiny little teeth.

Macro Monday is easy to play, snap a macro (or any close-up) photo, post it on your blog and come back here and sign MckLinky. :) MM started on Sept 29, 2008 - THANX to all of you for helping make it such a fun start to the week!

Who's there?

A couple of years ago my husband and I were looking in a pine tree, after dark, for a geocache. Instead of the cache we ran nose-to-nose, er um nose-to-beak, with a Northern Saw-whet Owl. Of course, at the time we hadn’t a clue what kind of owl it was. It was the tiniest, cutest, little owl I had ever seen. It sat on the branch in the glow from our flashlight as we quietly ooed and awed. I only had a cell phone camera with me and I snapped one crappy photo of him.

My husband emailed the photo to someone in the conservation department and the owl was identified for us. The Saw-whet we saw was tiny; it could have easily fit in my palm. On average they’re only about 7-8.5 inches long and weigh 2.5-3.5 ounces

I saw this owl at a zoo, and I thought the tag said Saw-Whet and the owl was small, but comparing these photos to the bird book it just doesn't look right.  But I can’t see any owl without thinking of that night I was kissing distance to that miniature owl.

And because I'm dying sick *cough* and my time is up for *ugh - a-choo* Letter O in Martha's A-Z Photo Challenge, this post is pulling double duty.  Sorry. *cough cough*  See, even this Barred Owl is ill.

A-choo!

Burrowing Owl

As we exited the park and continued down that long road, we came upon the neatest sight. We all yelled, “Was that an owl? I think that was an owl.” And Dennis quickly did a Uie and back we went.

As we pulled into the turn off the owl looked around. But he seemed ok with me shooting out the window.

Isn’t he the cutest little guy?!

He stood up, proud and tall.

Then he hunched down in a great diving pose, momentarily.

And the next snap was only feet.

We saw him land on the ground near the road and we quickly drove over. He watched us pull up alongside where he landed, only his head showing and we were puzzled. He was in a hole? How odd for an owl to be in a . . . oops, he’s gone, being the curious soul that I am, I cautiously got out and walked up to his hole. I peeked down into the ground but only saw. . .

I never knew that an owl would live in the ground but after a little research I now know he was a burrowing owl, a small ground-dwelling raptor and they are declining. He’s listed as threatened in Colorado.

Skunk Cabbage and Owl

I shared these photos with you on Monday and while searching through my flickr for them I discovered that I had taken them on April 28th, 2007. So, one year plus one day later I decided to go back over.

Hubby had barely walked in the door from work when I asked him to come to the park with me. I grabbed my macro lens and tossed the honkin’ lens to him. The honkin’ lens gets very heavy. Imagine carrying your laptop on the trails, yeah it’s 3-5 lbs, at least. So, I really call it my honkin’ lens, or sometimes huge honkin’, you might know it better as the 100-400mm, my birding lens. And since my left arm is aching, I assume from carrying it too much, I was happy to give it to him in case we saw the owl again.

On the way to the area I needed I saw this cute little snowman left over from our snow a couple of days ago. He looks pretty out of place now.

What I found was that I was a little late for the skunk cabbage; it looks very sad now. That center bulb thing starts out kind of a creamy white.

There was plenty around but it’s past its prime.

Do you recognize this? It will be prettier soon.

Who do I see?

Who sees me?

Those were taken with my macro lens (100mm). But Dennis managed to make his arm ache and get a crick in his neck while taking the following, with the camera pointed nearly straight up. And he says he’s not a birder, ha!

Pooping owl.

Shake, shake. . .

Shake.

Yawn?

Sneeze?

So, the whole trip wasn’t a bust. I really enjoyed watching him and I think he enjoyed seeing us again. We weren’t totally surprised to see him because we own a cache (GC12FTW) nearby and often people say they have seen him. I’m just amazed that he stays in this area. I guess he must find plenty to eat or he wouldn’t stay. Maybe he helps keep the nearby golf course clean.