Smorgasbord of Wildlife! Virginia Rail and Owl Family Treat!

Virginia Rail

We've been pretty damn lucky lately, in our own area even, to see some first time ever sights. While walking around in the forest east of us, we ran into people there who let us know there was a Great Horned Owl family.  People were being generously allowed, by a resident home owner, to come onto his property and view through his telescope, a baby owl and mom owl. The dad owl was a bit farther away on a different tree. It was a once in a life time amazing thrill to have that privilege! I could only get semi ok shots as I have only a 105mm old manual Nikkor lens. We saw other birds in the same area.....Magnolia Warblers, Kinglets, a Cat Bird, and Magpies.

We also were excited to see the deer for the first time, and a Virginia Rail, as well as some other kind of rail...maybe a Sora. The squirrels and muskrats of course, we always see.

Sora

Cat Bird

Baby Horned Owl

Lottsa Birds Today!

Another partial day off before a late shift at a trade show my work participates in. Good time to hit Halls Rd. while the hoards of kids and birders are (hopefully) at school and work.
Sure enough, it takes a couple minutes, but the tons of chickadees and eventually the other birds, smell food and begin to appear. There were again, hundreds of bombing by your head chickadees. Then, the downy woodpecker shoots out of nowhere and is on John's hand.
I got some cool pics. One, a one second chance capture of one of the red squirrels as it climbed around on the tree in front of us. So cute!!!