A Wee Photo Contest I Lost

My last blog posting featured my first barred owl, and I was pretty happy about my barred owl photo until I took a former friend out to my happy photo grounds and he one-upped me by getting this shot.

Now, I was standing in the same wood lot as Roger on the same late afternoon 300 feet away and I didn’t see this owl.  I saw nothing but pine trees.

And well, that was annoying enough, but as we walked quietly through the wood lot in search of other tree critters, I looked over at Roger still some 300 feet away and he was click, click, clicking away towards the top of tree.  This is one of his shots.

This was one of his other shots.

Did I mention I was 300 feet away and didn’t have a shot at this same turkey?  Not that it matters.  It also doesn’t matter that two more turkeys blew out of trees sort of near me and flew off in a tangle of pine tree branches.

We walked on through the woods several hundred feet apart until we reached a trail, upon which time I cast aspersions against Roger for taking several good photos to my…well, you don’t see any of mine yet, now do you?  In fact, last week’s photo outing for me was an absolute bust. 

Fast forward to Tuesday this week and you might imagine how excited I was to hook up with Roger for another photo walk in search of critters I probably wouldn’t get a picture of.   Since I’d erred last week by wearing bright clothes, this week Iwore my ghilli suit.  Surely the owl would like me in something that looks vaguely feathery?

We tromped back to where we’d seen the owl before and while we did hear the barred owl, we did not see him.  Instead, were stumbled upon this fella walking across the snow.

I think he’s kind of cute.

Of course, I wanted to shake hands with this brave `mander for coming out in 45 degree weather for a walk across the snow. 

But a` mander has four legs and he apparently couldn’t decide which leg to offer me to shake, because he just sat there.  So I picked him up and verified that indeed, `manders are cold little amphibians when it’s cold outside.

In an instant, the little `mander curled up in a ball as if ready to take a nap.  I held him for a moment and told him that, unfortunately, I wasn’t the big, warm, shrubby, bushy thing he was thinking I was and had to move on.  I put him gingerly back on the snow and Roger and I continued on in search of the elusive barred owl without success.  When we retraced our tracks a half hour later, the `mander was gone.

So, at least this week I got a photo of something.  Roger did, too, as you see, and he’s still one up on me in the owl and turkey department.  But I have more photos here, in part because waiting for me at home Tuesday was my old friend, Mr. Gawky.

Mrs. Gawky was on the other side of the lake checking out last year’s nest site.  When she saw me, she took to the air.

In the end, it shouldn’t really matter that Roger got a better photo of the owl and turkey than me, and that I got more photos than him in my own blog posting. Because the important thing is that he captured what he saw and shared his photos with me, to share with you.  That’s what it’s all about.  That and a friendly photo rivalry.  Oh, and looking sexy in a ghilli suit.