This is my neighbour the great horned owl. I almost bumped right into him this morning. He was sitting on a low tree branch along Riverview Drive, and I was walking along looking for a bird I could hear in the tree tops, and never saw the owl until he dropped off his branch and flew into the woods. Owls have this way of dropping off trees when they take off, whereas eagles, for example, lift off.
At first I was kicking myself for missing him, of course, then he landed near the Kiwanis Trail, where I could still get at him, so I stalked him through the woods. This isn't something I enjoy, because you can't keep an eye both on the bird and on the dog crap on the ground, but, needs must when the devil drives, yes? And I was able to position myself up-light from him, which is something I've been really focusing on lately. I'm getting tired of crappy backlit photos where you can't see anything. The top photo was done on purpose though, as I was walking away west after getting some good shots, I thought a non-crappy backlit photo might look quite nice, as indeed it does.
Well, I was gonna talk more about how he looks like a big tabby cat, but my watch alarm just went off which means it's time to get ready for work. Ta-ta!
