Mom

A couple of days ago, I called in at my local park and went to check on a family of five Great Horned Owls. They were all way up an embankment, but so amazing to see. Dad was in his own tree, Mom (seen above) was perched on this broken tree trunk, keeping an eye on her three young ones who were all playing together in the grasses and plants and then two of them flew up into a tree. Quite a handful for their Mom : ) 18x zoom plus a crop, so it looks like I was much closer than I actually was : )

Just got home from a day of botanizing south of the city, near Black Diamond, at the Three Point Creek Natural Area. We even had Great Horned Owls flying nearby when we were there - gosh, there are owls everywhere, LOL! A fairly hot day - too hot for me, but at least there was no rain, so we were really lucky. On the way home, we called in at a Bakery and coffee shop in Black Diamond - the coffee tasted SO good! Ralph, if you happen to get on to Flickr and see this - thanks again so much for driving today - much appreciated!