Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2000 18:36:01 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Carol Garza Subject: Enchanting, if not SPECTACULAR Evening MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hello Fellow Birders, Last night had to have been one of the most exciting birding moments, or = should I say, Owling moments I've ever had. It will be very very = difficult to top last night's wonderment. Back in the woods by where I live, are 2 adult Barred Owls and a baby = owl. I presume the adults are the momma and the poppa Owls. On many = occassions, I have had the opportunity to see the owlette and one of the = adults but never all together. Every evening, when I take my early evening stroll, with my dogs, I = manage to see one or the other. As I was returning home from the walk, = I was thinking how I wish I could see all three of them, as some of my = birding neighbors have. About 1/4 of a mile up the path, I ran into some fellow birders who had = not seen the Barred Owl(s) at all & were looking for them . I offered = to walk back with them to show them the vicinity where I have seen them = time & time again. The Barred Owls can easily be seen off the path..in = perfect view.. As we stopped in the vicinity, lo & behold we spot one of them, and as = we locked our binocs to it, two of us exclaimed: It's the BABY OWL!. He is truly adorable w/his scrabbly downy feathers. It was walking back = & forth across the branch too !! We then did a scan of the other trees = close by, and quickly spotted one of the adults... I'm getting to the meat of the post now, folks. :) Moments later, the adult flew right OVER our heads to land on another = tree near by.. RIGHT above our heads !!! We then looked back at the = owlette WHO was stretching his neck out as far as he could, to see where = his mom or pop went to !!! The expression on his little (big) eyes said = it all !!!! He really appeared to have a worried look on his face. Shortly thereafter, The adult flies back to the baby, and once again, = RIGHT over our heads !!! THEN, just as it's getting there, the OTHER = adult flies right to the baby also!! Both landed at right about the same = time. One was carrying DINNER to him !!! We couldn't tell what dinner = was, but the cardinals were sure making a fuss nearby.=20 I don't know what dinner was, & personally, I'd rather not know ! :) But what a spectacular sight it was to witness this once in a lifetime = event... at least for me, anyway!!! :) :) By now, it's starting to get dark, making it harder and harder for us to = keep up w/the activity. However, it doesn't end there because as we're getting ready to part = ways, we look up to see a number of bats flying over us... It was GREAT = !!! I hope reading this longwinded post of mine was well worth it. :) Happy Birding to all,=20 Carol Garza, a happy Owler at the moment ! :) ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================