For the last several days I’ve been trying to photograph American robins eating madrone berries in the Cap Sante neighborhood. We have a couple of madrone trees that are loaded with berries. It’s not as easy as it might seem, and I’ve spent MANY hours at it with some fairly good results but at a cost of a sore neck and at least one other anatomical area that will remain undisclosed!

When things get slow with the berry-eaters I take a tour of the neighborhood looking for other interesting birds/photographic opportunities and visiting with any neighbors I find in yards or walking the neighborhood. I was on my second or third tour of the neighborhood when I spied a gray blob about eye level in our neighborhood’s wetland. I paused, backed the car for a better view, and found I was looking at a Barred owl sitting on a limb… in the open! I immediately began taking photos and managed 125 before I finally left the owl almost two hours later. I was able to notify many neighbors who were able to see the owl.

By the time I had left the wetland the owl had flown from its initial perch to one higher up in a tree, but it was still in the wetland. So here are some of the photos I took…

Before finding the owl I had another unusual encounter with a bird I’ve seen only five or six times in my life, but I’m saving those photos until I have a little more time to organize those photos. Stay tuned!