They’re back! Like a herd of dust in a cloud to turtles! I had been hoping the Great Horned Owl owlets would return to my favorite pine grove. As a reminder, I have been following the parents for three years, and each of the past two summers the owl family has moved back to my favorite pine grove for July and August. I had always felt the move corresponded to other birds fledging and thus prey opportunities had changed. Young Robins, Grackles, Flickers, Blue Jays and Crows are now great targets for young owls learning how to hunt.

Thus, this morning I was hiking by 5:30 am, and was shortly rewarded by spotting two owlets sitting within inches of each other. Although the photography conditions were still somewhat dark in the pine grove, I set the ISO high on my camera. For some strange reason, I could not get a focus lock. Yup, good photographers make dumb mistakes, and I made two such mistakes this morning.

1. My lens was still set to manual focus (moon photography a few days ago)
2. Above problem now being solved … while moving to a better vantage point … crack … I stepped on a dry stick. I know better. While my owls put up with me being close, they hate loud unexpected noises like a stick breaking. Both owlets flew off immediately.

After 30 minutes additional hiking I located the third owlet with some thanks to the local robin population which were clucking like crazy and helped me locate junior. Here are two images.

A wood duck family I found just after sunrise yesterday morning. The sun is very low in the sky, making me almost invisible to the duck family. The sun was directly behind me back. In the second photo, something caught the duck family’s attention, but I personally had no idea at what they all were looking.

Finally, here are two short videos taken over the past few days … the wood duck family and the Common Loon on its nest. (video links for email subscribers … wood ducks … common loon).