Lights of the woods

I walked into our meadow this evening to take this photo of the cabin lights (and a photograher at the corner of the deck) -


--- who took this photo and caught my red focus light with his long exposure.

~N

Patrolling the Meadow

This morning a Red-Tailed Hawk landed atop a tall Jeffrey Pine overlooking the meadow. For about 15 minutes he/she sat quietly watching. Finally responding to some hidden signal (or just out of boredom?) and with a singled strong beat of wing, our hawk was gone. ~B

Critters

Each day we never know what 'critters' we will find around the cabin. One day - a Garter Snake. Another - a Coyote wanders through the meadow. Then - a Mule Deer sneaks past a neighbor's cabin. And there are always the Acorn Woodpeckers flying in the Jeffrey Pines. ~B

The Early Bird

Our newest best friend is a chickadee who waits at our door each morning. He will hop all over inside toolboxes left out, looking for seeds. If we don't get sunflower seeds out of the bottle fast enough, he just helps himself.

~N

Wesley the Owl

We both read the book 'Wesley the Owl' by Stacey O'Brien. When she was scheduled to speak at the Julian library we were anxious to hear her.

Stacey was a CalTech student 30 yrs ago and had the opportunity to adopt a day old (injured/not releasable) barn owl from the research lab where she worked. She had Wesley for 19 years and her book read like raising a demanding infant all those years . . . with the exception, when Wesley was full grown - as male barn owls he became very protective of her (trying to feed her dead mice). He also mated with her arm almost daily.

Her story is fascinating and it was wonderful to see slides and movie clips of their years together.


I don't know how clearly you can see this, but they would cuddle every night. He would fall asleep on her chest. She said the publisher insisted on seeing these because they almost didn't believe her story. Barn owls aren't supposed to do these things with humans. Stacey discovered otherwise. ~N