{Spotted} Owl

The Man and I took a drive yesterday afternoon. I think I have a little bit of cabin fever. We didn't have anywhere in mind, I just wanted to take the camera and drive.

We found a little bit of ice on the edge of a pond. I've never seen ice ripple like that.

Fancy little ice ruffles.

When we left the house, I said to the Man, "I want to go somewhere we can find an owl."

The Man laughed at me, "They're nocturnal. You're not going to see one during the day."

"Well, they have to go somewhere during the day. Maybe we will," I said. 

And look what I found - a spotted owl.

__________

The Man was amazed that I found one. We were driving along a dirt road through some forest land owned by one of the universities in the state. I use the word "road" lightly since it was so rough - lots of rocks and gouges and mud. At one point, I told the Man we should turn around. I was afraid the truck was going to get stuck. The road looked more like a path, not a road. 

The Man reminded me the truck had four wheel drive so we kept going. After a few minutes, I was looking up into the trees and spotted the owl. No pun intended. "Is that an owl?" I asked.

"Where?" said the Man.

"Over there," I said, pointing to the branch it was sitting on. The Man looked at it in disbelief. "I can't believe you found an owl. Do you know how rare it is to see one like this?"

Nope. I didn't know. But now I can say I've seen an owl in the wild.

Pretty cool.