Last night after an all-day meeting of the Environmental Fund for
Maryland meeting in Wye I went birding on Wye Island while trying
to beat the light (didn't want a run-in with a  ranger for being in the
area after dark).

On the way out I had my windows wide open, driving vvveeeerrrryyy
slowly,  and I heard reeeek! Had to be an owl!! Stopped the van in the
middle of the dirt road, jumped out with the engine still running, and began
to scan the woods, he kept yelling at me until I found him (her??) and then
we just sat and looked at each other. A GREAT HORNED OWL just sitting
there on a horizontal branch.

I almost wept, for although I have three other owls on my life list, 
they are all
audibles. This is the first owl I have ever seen in the wild.

Other species observed in the hour I got to bird

Norther Cardinal
Osprey
Canada Goose
Red-Wing Blackbird
European Starling
White-Throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
American Robin
American Crow
Dark-Eyed Junco
Eastern BlueBird
Tundra Swan
Mallard
American Coot
Greater Scaup
Bufflehead


Blessings
Gayle

-- 
~
Rev. Gayle Bach-Watson, UCC
4405 Molesworth Terrace,
Mt. Airy, Maryland  USA

Home: 301-831-3874
Cell: 301-367-9306

If I keep a green bough in my heart, 
the singing bird will come.
Chinese Proverb

A bird does not sing because it has an answer. 
It sings because it has a song.
Chinese Proverb