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Thursday, November 14, 2013

Whooo Did We See in Greenbrier?

There we were, driving down the road to exit the Greenbrier section of the GSMNP.


Wayne suddenly hit the brakes and backed up, saying he thought he saw an owl in the woods.  Sure enough, an owl was perched on a branch a few trees in from the road.

Allaboutbirds.org says that Barred Owls live in dense forests near water and roost quietly in trees during the daytime.  On the other side of our truck was a large creek so that sounds about right!



We backed up and parked in a pullout, closing the doors quietly.  Wayne armed with binoculars, me with my Canon SX50, we walked down the road to where we had spotted the owl. 



While I was trying to get some shots that were somewhat focused, Wayne slipped a little further along the road.  That owl's head turned and kept its eyes on him the whole way.



My poor arms got tired of holding the camera up, and then I noticed that it looked like the owl had seen something and was kind of hunching down.  I turned my setting to video and then he was in flight!  It was so great having the opportunity to be a part of his day, and now that's two owls I've watched during the daytime. If you listen closely you can hear me whisper "I got him!"


5 comments:

  1. Yep you got him. Normally I see owls at night round here and this is when a big white barn owl flys out infront of the car and scares the life out of you. Well done on spottting it

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  2. That was cute, the thrill overcame you "oh I got him". Good on Wayne spotting him in all that denseness while driving.

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  3. Finding owls in the daytime is a real 'hoot'! :)

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  4. Hi Pam; you got lucky! Beaut' photos and a great pickup.

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  5. I love seeing things like that. Last week we saw 11 hawks sitting along the expressway. That was our record for the most in one day along I -57.

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