He's a Real Hoot

Finally the holiday season is behind us and life can return to normal. Well, as normal as it ever is.

I haven't had any time to devote to the blog lately which I feel bad about but there's not a whole lot I can do about it. Besides, I really haven't had a lot on my mind lately worth blogging about.

By the way, if you're on Twitter, I spend a bit of time on there most days sharing my opinions on different things. I guess in a way each Tweet is a mini 140 character blog each time I type something. You can see my most recent Tweets in the right hand column of this blog but you can also follow me on Twitter as well. I know a lot of you aren't into it and that's fine. I realize it isn't for everyone.

Anyway, I bought myself, I mean, Santa brought me a new camera for Christmas so I managed to get out with it on the final day of 2010. I was about to head home from my outing without photographing anything too interesting when I saw something big land beside the road I was slowly driving down.

After it took flight again I realized it was a Barred Owl and he was close enough for me to snap a few shots. I pulled the car over, grabbed the camera and my 70-300 lens and started shooting. I wasn't overly happy with what I was getting being too far away so I ventured across the frozen marshy area while praying I didn't break through the ice and get a soaker. The ice held for the most part.

I watched as the owl flew to the ground again and caught an unidentified rodent which it carried back to his perch and ripped apart with both it's beak and claws. Do they call them claws? Any way, he made short work of the rat like corpse.

Moving as close as I dared I eventually snapped a few photos I felt were keepers. Below is one I really liked. There are a few more where this photo is stored on Flickr if you care to have a look.

Please remember my photos are copyrighted so look but don't steal. :-)