Before the snow began the other day, I needed to go into town to inspect one of the properties I have listed. That turned out to be a great Owl spotting day.

On the way down the driveway, the dripping spring icicles were shining in the sunlight.

Not only were the owls out in daylight, but we saw hawks and kestrels, too.

The first owl spotting happened on our dirt road, a few miles from our gate. A barred owl, just sitting on a limb minding his own business. It was too far for a good photo, unfortunately.

Then we saw a broad-winged hawk, maybe a cooper’s hawk, and a beautiful red-shouldered hawk. I was unable to get photos of any of the hawks. They wouldn’t sit still and wait on me to get the camera out.

The red-shouldered hawk flew from the branch over and across the road to swoop onto prey. With his wings caped over the kill, we couldn’t see what he caught, and it lifted off carrying whatever it was with him into the trees.

As we neared the end of our dirt road I spotted an orange ball of fluff and shouted out to my husband to stop and back up.

A red-morph screech owl – so cute! I love these tiny little owls. This one was fairly close, within ten feet, probably. He or she stayed in place and made faces at me as I got the best photos I could with the lighting and brambles.

Once we were on pavement, kestrels dotted the powerlines every so often. We never see them around our house because there isn’t enough open space for them. These little falcons like fields better than the forests. They were too far away for any hope of a decent picture, so I didn’t even try.

Once we made it to the property, I did my inspection. On the way out, there was another owl spotting to be had. Another barred owl, and this one was close enough to at least tell it is an owl in the photo.

On the way home we found the tiny little screech owl still hiding out in the bramble bushes. This time he opened his eyes 🙂