Hi every one! Can you believe it? I still cannot believe my luck and I was there!!! Again while on my way to work this morning there was someone white and *quite* chunky looking flying across the road. I pulled over, backed up a bit, and admired a stunningly beautiful snowy Owl perched on top of a utility pole. This one was much larger than the first Owl I had seen and was more heavily barred. The barring seemed darker / black. I believe this Owl was a female as her face, nape of the neck and center of the breast were white. From what I was able to research that does describe the female snowy. Maybe this was an immature but I did not find much description of them. Any way ... I am 113% sure this was another Snowy Owl! What a wonderful start to the day! As my luck would have it, I did not have my camera in the car for the past week. Had the camera been there then for sure the Owl would NOT! LOL! So that was a great start to the day. I was 20 minutes late to work but work is just soooo over-rated. LOL! The rest of the day was downhill but who cares? I saw another Snowy Owl! The Owl was about 1 mile south of the earlier sighting on Rt. 83 in N. Ridgeville again. C3D and 2 Snowy sightings this year!

Howdy, konrad, janie and luc! WOW, long time indeed!!!! Konrad, I keep reading and hearing that about my shots, about them looking like paintings. Since I had to stop drawing due to the carpal tunnel, the camera has given me freer rein in getting what I see down better than any ink ever did . . . for me, that is. There's still a time or two when I will sit down to draw, and this summer I will be working on 'cartoonish' owls and the like for our church, but these will be larger than life :) Janie- it has been quite some time. . .and it is good to be back here. I keep the browser open to this page and while I may not post every day, at least I can show up from time to time and share what I am seeing :) Luc, well, your English seems good to me! :) I have been working on photography off and on since 2001, when I acquired my first digital camera after years of working, again, off and on, with SLR. Joe in SW NH rekindled something in me that way when he was shooting photos everywhere he went while here visiting with me in October and part of November of 2000, and at one point during our visit, he let me use his camera to capture a couple of shots of Harlequin Ducks. I still have his shot of Nevermore gracing my wall. . .I miss him. . .I miss Nevermore, but think I know that she's the bird I keep running in to at MacKerricher State Park. . . Glad your RWBB's and Grackles are back. Power's flickering, gotta run, Feather

Sadly I cannot see the pics. But having known an American Kestrel up close and personal, I know they are incredibly beautiful and colorful falcons. They will sometimes take small birds, but definately not their primary diet. They will nest in appropriate nestboxes in the right habitat, but they also have to compete with the invasive European Starling. When we lived on a farm, we had kestrels nest in a box mounted right outside our window, so we could watch them bring food to their young, and perch nearby to hunt. What a wonderful memory. Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.mn.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/ecs/wild/kestrel.pdf

We raised a kestrel (Spsrrow hawk)from a baby that my son found on the road. She was almost dead when he found her. and I used my special formula (carnation evaporated milk mixed with water, and Karo syrup), because we couldn't get her to eat. Boy, she revived almost imediately after getting some of the formula!! Even as an unfledged chick, she was so strong! It was our pleasure to see her on her way when she flew and we taught her how to hunt; and that fall I was out in our back pasture when I heard the distinctive cry of kestrels. They were migrating south. I gave my whistle, and the whole flock turned around, flew over my head, and landed inj a wooded copse nearby. Now, I will always believe that our "Zephyr" was in that flock; else why did they turn around when they heard my whistle? Watch the median strip of the interstate .You can always see one hovering there looking at an insect from about 20 feet. up!