Exciting owl sighting!

Driving home from a park on Saturday evening, I saw something large and dark fly into a tree on the side of the road. I KNEW it was an owl, and I was pretty sure it was a Great horned owl, so I pulled over a little down the road, put my telephoto lens on the camera, and trotted back to where I’d seen it. When I got to the tree, I saw not one but TWO Great horned owls! Now, it was quite dark and I was hand-holding my large lens, so these pictures are grainy and blurry and terrible, but I was just excited to see the owls so I’ve kept the pictures for that reason and not because they are any good.

The first owl was sitting with her back to me. I say “her” because this bird looked slightly larger than the other one and was therefore probably the female of the pair.
back of a Great horned owl

After a few minutes she turned around to give me the evil eye.
Great horned owl

On a slightly lower limb, the second owl stared at me.
mate of the other Great horned owl

This brings the total count of owls I have seen in the wild up to six: three barred owls that I saw in Virginia, and three Great horned owls that I have seen in California. For all my complaints about not seeing enough wildlife in California, I am getting a little luckier!

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