While eating breakfast this morning, looking out onto the meadow and watching birds and squirrels on the feeder, I noticed that suddenly everyone left. The feeder was empty of wildlife, a sure sign a hawk or other large bird was nearby. Sure enough, I looked up into the bigleaf maple and there it was, a Barred Owl. I think it’s the same one I saw a few months in the same place. I casually finished my breakfast pretty sure it would fly away at any moment, but it didn’t. Okay, so I grabbed my camera and took several shots from inside the window which were blurry. No good. I knew if I wanted a decent photo I’d have to take the chance that it wouldn’t fly when I went outside. No problem, to my surprise he didn’t seem to care. I took a few shots from a ‘safe distance’ then thought ‘what the heck, let’s try to get closer.’ Stepping down from the porch onto the grass under the tree I quickly took a few more shots. Then I realized it really didn’t care, and obviously felt safe at that height. Heck, it was probably laughing knowing full well I couldn’t scale the tree. It was a little foggy and pretty dark but a few of the photos turned out. The owl stayed in the tree until the sun came out when it probably flew to the darker forest surrounding our meadow. What a nice way to start the day!
Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago at 4:55 pm. Add a comment
Our quest to find a little Scamp trailer took us to Tampa Bay this week and we weren’t disappointed. The trailer is just what we’re looking for and the owners, Cher and Frank, are delightful people. Knowing we had just a few hours to spend in the area that day they suggested a few places we might like to see including an opportunity to see manatees.
In Apollo Beach, the Big Bend Power Plant discharges 78 degree water attracting manatees when the bay temperatures drop below 68 degrees. The plant has built an environmental education building and observation platform from which to view these gentle giants. It was an amazing sight to see over a hundred manatees together in one place, I could have stayed for hours just watching them. Swimming among them were stingrays and spinner sharks energetically jumping out of the water. For more info on the center visit their website at www.tampaelectric.com/manatee/
Posted 6 months, 4 weeks ago at 2:04 pm. Add a comment
Snow Geese – Sacramento Wildlife Refuge
This is a repost of our trip to Southern California to visit family and friends over the holidays. I guess the previous post has been forever lost in cyberspace, or accidentally deleted? I admit it could be ‘operator error.’
We’d planned on at least three weeks for the road trip and our timing was perfect. The weather was ideal both in San Diego and Anza Borrego. Even our quick stop at the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge was warm and sunny.
Once in San Diego we took several side trips to Anza Borrego State Park for a little camping and hiking, our way to relax and rejuvenate from the fast pace of the city. Anza Borrego is California’s largest state park encompassing more than 600,000 acres and home to 50 or more species of flora and fauna including the parks namesake the Bighorn Sheep (Borrego is Spanish for sheep).
Balboa Park at Dusk
Photos taken at Anza Borrego State Park
Posted 6 months, 4 weeks ago at 7:09 pm. Add a comment
