Sunday birds.

Thankfully I completely disregarded the weather forecast this morning and went out to look for some birds.  The weather was on my side (all day!) and the dogs and I had a nice walk at Kelley Point Park and then another at Force Lake.  Kelley Point was buzzing with bird activity even though I didn't see that many...  A funny little Bewick's Wren came over to have a chat with me:


Force Lake actually had a greater variety of birds including a pair of Ring-necked Ducks:


A lone Ruddy Duck:


There are always at least a couple Pied-billed Grebes at the lake, but today there was one that looked a little funny...


...because it was NOT actually a Horned Grebe. 


I returned home from my morning of birding to eat lunch and start tackling my to-do list.  I figured I would start with steam-cleaning the spots on my carpet so I took my new steam-cleaner out of the box and looked at the instructions.  Step 1: charge the battery for 12 hours.

I could have easily moved on to some other tasks but instead drove out to Hillsboro to the Intel campus to look for some recently reported Barn Owls.  I wandered around the huge parking lot looking into each tree hoping for some luck.  After about 15 minutes I heard someone whistling and turned around to see some arms waving.  Figured it was someone who knew what I was looking for and knew better where to look. 

Indeed!  It was Rhett the owl whisperer himself.   I joined him, his wife, and his friend, and was treated to the sight of not one, not two, not three, but FOUR Barn Owls! 


Yay for lifer #378!  High fives all around!

Comments

  1. And just think, if that battery came pre-charged you wouldn't have seen barn owls today! I'm going to go looking tomorrow afternoon if I can fit it in. Thanks for the directions!

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  2. Great Owl shots! I love how much you've been blogging lately.

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  3. Wow, very cool seeing 4 barn owls. Congrats on your lifers. They are beautiful. Great shots, Jen!

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  4. Congrats another lifer, Jen! Excellent shots!

    BTW - Once we saw you drive off, we ran back to snuggle the birds a bit. Couldn't have you reporting us.

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    1. Ha, well that's not surprising at all.. Definitely snuggle-worthy birds.

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  5. Woah!!! Barn Owls beat out chores any day of the week, any week of the year, any year of the millennia.

    That Bewick's Wren must've approached you so closely because you had a touch of destiny about you that day. Those Owls are fabulous, and now my life seems very dull...

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    1. You live in Arizona! Life can't be dull! At least not bird-wise...

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  6. OH MY Im seriously jealous!! Barn owls have been on MY MOST WANTED List for as long as Ive been birding, which began in serious in 1991...
    The photos you got of them are AWESOME!! I had no idea their body feathers were so gorgious!!

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    1. Well come visit! You could cross OR & WA off your state list too.

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  7. Lifer? Good job. Love the Barn Owls. Interestingly the bird behind the popular yet questionable practice of "meat-lifering" is the Barn Owl.

    You should take a closer look at the bill shape of that grebe.

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    1. Dammit, not a Horned Grebe at all. I have no defense.

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  8. Great owl shots Jen, congrats on the lifer!

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