Eagle River Owling

Owwwwwling:  Spent Sunday at The Eagle River Nature Center owling.  Saturday I located a  Great Horned Owl and I wanted to follow up with an attempt to find him/her in the daytime.  It had snowed a couple of inches by the time we got there so it was beautiful.  Hard to keep the dogs reeled in too with all of the foreign, uuuumm, smells.  It wasn’t toooo cold, about 20 F.

The owls are out right now hooting for mates which makes it a little easier to find them.  The GH I spotted was sitting silently on a branch and then started calling after I started making a racket with my camera (it was my first GH).  So I got off a couple of shots on it but they were bad because the light was so very low, I started banging around with my tripod like a rookie and I’ll be darned if that owl didn’t turn around to me and tell me to shut up.  I mean if he had actually said the words it wouldn’t have been more clear than him looking me right in the eye, leaning in, thrusting head out towards me and giving a scolding HOOOOO,……..HOOOOOO!  I froze like a little boy and then started laughing, couldn’t help myself and with a disgusted look over his shoulder the wise old owl lit out.  He came off his perch and dropped down right in front of me and I could not hear the wind in his wings, amazing.  I would hate to be a critter having to watch out for those guys.