The Morning Meal

When we arrived at work this morning the trees were covered in snow and it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Our intern Jessie went out to fill the bird feeders and excitedly came back upstairs telling us she had spooked an owl. Yes, the owl is back. It really likes hanging out at the building. This isn't surprising as some animals got into the seed we keep under the deck and she had staked out a branch just above the deck. She's in the upper right in the above photo looking at the area under the deck where the seeds are stored and where a red squirrel was hiding out. We watched her from the windows in the lounge. Here we all are gathered at the window so you can see how close she really was. Click any photo for a larger view. After some time a red squirrel started dropping snow on the owls head. In this photo the owl is looking up at the squirrel. What happened next was too fast to catch with the camera. The owl flew up and chased the squirrel trying to pull it off the tree. The squirrel headed down and the owl chased it around the tree in the spiral. The squirrel got away and immediately after the chase the area was full of woodpeckers chirping loudly. It was thrilling to watch the chase and we're sure we'll be seeing more of this owl.

~Kirk