Hello - Anyone who knows me well, knows that I have a massive interest in raptors. And, lately I've had my fair share of raptor viewing, mostly ospreys. But, I've been on quite a long owl drought (a drowlt?). Well, that drought abruptly ended today. I was on a late morning walk in Fort Myers, FL before heading to the airport to come back home to Minneapolis. I was following calls of a red-shouldered hawk in the woods. And, as I was walking the path, a Barred Owl called out loudly from very close by. Next thing I knew, the owl flew across the path directly in front of me and landed in a tree just a few yards from the trail. I had my camera with and started clicking away. Then, I heard a second owl call from directly behind me. The first owl, turned in my direction, dove out of the tree and glided directly at me and over my head. If I wasn't so busy ducking, I could have literally reached up and touched it. For the next 30 minutes, the owls called back and forth, and took turns flying back and forth across the path near me. And, if that wasn't enough, the aforementioned red-shouldered hawk I was originally tracking landed in a tree near the path. It called loudly for a couple minutes before one of the owls briefly tangled with it, and drove the hawk away.
It was an amazing encounter that I will not forget. Here are some of the photos I captured. I included a couple where I was jumping out of the way as the owls went cruising over my head. http://www.flickr.com/photos/rburmaster/ Besides the owls and hawk, I spotted quite a few other raptors on my trip. Many, many ospreys. Countless turkey vultures. A few bald eagles. And, another highlight, a swallow-tailed kite (though too far off to get a photo - next time!). Good birding, Bob Burmaster Minneapolis ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
