There has been another cool bird sighting in the valley Rolf Reiss sent me this.
"A couple of weeks ago while walking down Woodland Valley Road in the middle of the day I saw what I thought was a hawk land in a tree about 200 feet in front of me. It stayed in the tree until I reached it and realized that it was not a hawk but a barred owl with a red squirrel in it's talons. It remained there as I walked away thinking about how odd it was to see an owl hunting in broad daylight. Sure enough after arriving at home I got out my Sibleys field guide to birds where it described the barred owl as " Usually solitary. Nocturnal. Hunts at night for small mammals. A relatively stocky, medium -size owl."
This past Sunday which was cold and windy with snow showers I was standing at my back door just admiring the beauty of the day when out of nowhere an owl landed on the ground about 7 feet from where I stood. I was very lucky to get some photos of this wondrous visitor. It stayed watching the small birds come and go from our bird feeder for quite a while before flying off.
I suspect that it may very well have been the same owl I had seen along the road a few weeks earlier. Has anyone else seen this "nocturnal" beauty?"
- Rolf
