My Birding Experience

    Stealth like,  it  swooped low and flew very near where I was walking,  startling me  out of  my reverie and quiet reflection. With its wings spread wide, the bird was huge and kept my attention as  he glided through the woods. I continued looking up, and followed his direction.  Maybe one reason I pressed on despite the wet leafy terrain, getting my pants soaked and shoes all muddy is because I had recently seen Steve Martin's new movie, The Big Year, a story about birding, and was motivated to see and document a bird myself.

I was still several   feet away when I watched with awe as the mighty bird made its landing on the limb of a tall pine . With his cat like stare he looked at me , as I looked back at him.  Continuing to move forward,   I saw he had  ear tufts (horns) and no neck,  and recognized what I thought was a  hawk, wasn't a hawk at all, but a Great Horned Owl.

                                                                 

  

Disappointed I didn't have my Nikon, I took  a picture using my cell phone.  That seemed okay with the Great Horned one. In fact, he sat on that limb for the longest time,  like  he was posing for a bird magazine  photo shoot - tilting his head to the side,  and  allowing me to take picture after picture.   It wasn't until  I tried hooting, hoo- hoo-hoo, hoo- oo, hoo-oo ,  that he  stretched his wings and flew away.