Birds #3 (2017)

A couple of weeks ago, while my parents were visiting, we were sitting around the kitchen table for lunch when I saw a flash of a large wingspan outside the window, extremely close to the house. It was a barred owl, and he/she perched on a lilac branch for a solid 15-20 minutes before moving to another perch even closer to the house, and then another.  After a while, the owl flew around to the other side of the house and sat in a young black cherry tree outside of our little cabin.  When my dad and I went out to get something from his truck, the owl flew off deeper into the woods, but a half hour later was back in the lilacs.

Earlier than this, my 3 1/2 year old daughter spotted a bald eagle from about 50 yards as we were eating breakfast, as it flew into the enormous cottonwood tree along our brook.

Not a bird, but a few days ago I also saw, very briefly, a bobcat that I spooked when coming out of the house as it was snowing. I saw a blur of tawny fur, and I knew it wasn't a deer or a dog. It moved differently, and quickly, up the hill in the newly fallen deep powder.