Saturday, May 14, 2011

Empty Nest Syndrome....


I said I wouldn't force my favorite owl family on you again, but I guess I lied. Yesterday the news in the Denver Post was that two baby owls had been blown out of their tree, and had been rescued by the Audubon Society here along the Riverfront Trail. I was afraid it had been 'our' owls, though they were described as much younger. So we went out to check on the owls this morning. (As it turns out, the rescued owlets are along another part of the trail.)

At first, we just saw the empty nest. But as we returned along the trail, we saw owl #1 in the nest tree, but out on a higher limb.


Then Owl #2 was spotted in the same tree, higher up on the opposite side.


Owl #3 was the one that was booted out of the nest early, but it was spotted in a nearby tree, and looks like it is a bit lonely, but otherwise growing and able to fly, as it was in a different tree from last week.


Some other walkers with incredible vision spotted Mama Owl watching over the owlets (and us) across the river in a tree, well camouflaged, but visible.


I also took a photo of this baby Flicker (we think, as I saw an adult flicker go into the same hole earlier.) There had been two babies looking out the hole, but when I switched from the binoculars to the camera, one disappeared.


And I couldn't resist this quail, calling her heart out on the top of this old tree.


My husband thought I was crazy to photograph this ant hauling an elm seed, but I like the photo.
Such a hard worker! I need to post this somewhere to motivate myself.


And, lest I be accused of doing nothing but owl-watching anymore, I will post this proof that I have also made a bit of progress in the studio. Not as much as I would have liked to make, but some progress is still some progress!

1 comment:

Sue said...

Love it that you had the owlets to watch and take pictures to share with us. I watched a nest of hummingbirds one spring and still love thinking about that experience. How blessed we are to be able to watch all the lovely things of nature.

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