Greetings From Little Owl

One the branch staring me down.

We haven’t seen the little owls for a couple of weeks. When the smoke descended upon us the owls seemed to say “¡Hasta la vista! Babies!” and disappeared. Over the past week, we had heard them eeping, but we couldn’t find them in the trees. Various people mentioned hearing the owlets and seeing them fly into the bosque, but sightings, where the owlets are perched on a branch eeping and watching people, had become scarce.

Last night when I was walking to 4th of July Point at sunset, I heard eeping, and I found this little owl on a branch behind the Tangle Heart Tree. Laurie walked up and we could hear the other owlet eeping deeper in the bosque south of the Tangle Heart Tree, but I couldn’t find it.

Taking a closer look at the pesky paparazzo.

Half-moon in the Tangle Heart Tree

The owlet flew back behind other branches.

¡Hola!

Daisy Day

Shasta Daisies

Assassin Bug hanging out

A bee lands on the daisy and the Assassin Bug prepares to strike.

The Assassin Bug gets the bee.

Wings in a daisy

A Pearl Crescent butterfly gets a bite to eat.

A large native bee having breakfast.

A large, allusive red wasp quickly passes through.

A Great Purple Hairstreak Butterfly wandering around on a daisy.

Night Heron @ Night

We started our walk on the ditch after sundown last light. As we were walking north on the levee, this Night Heron flew up in the tree along the clearwater ditch. He perched very close to us. Night Herons are usually very timid. Maybe he felt secure in the darkness because he stayed perched on the branch in clear view and turned from one side to the other as I snapped photos of him.