This afternoon, about five p.m., I walked into the back yard and, simultaneously, a very big bird flew out of a neighbor's tree and landed on our back fence. Very surprised by it's action, it's size, and it's position on the top of the fence, some fifteen yards ahead of me, I quickly realized that I was looking at a large-ish owl. His back was turned toward me, but he repeatedly turned his face toward me, so I was pretty sure he knew I was there. And he sat there.
I went into the house to get my camera, and when I got back outside, he was still there on top of the fence. I took a few pictures, though he was too far away for my (inadequate) zoom to record much of an image.
I went back inside, and about forty minutes later, I went out again and he was still there though now on the trunk of a tree. Around 6:15, Ed came home, and by then he had moved out on a branch of that same tree. Ed, a better photographer than I, and the possessor of a better camera, took this second photo. For about an hour, the owl posed and presented his many excellent angles to Ed, who put a
larger version of this photo up on Flickr in his "Somewhere in Point Roberts" set.
By 8 p.m., he was gone. The bird is a barred owl, of course, and a regular inhabitant of these parts, but I'd never seen one before so close or for so long. Thanks,owl, for the opportunity!
