Lately there’s been a great horned owl fledgling hanging out in our woods. We hear him or her squawking at night as we walk next door or in the morning as I’m leaving for work. When I went out the other morning I heard the hooting of a pair of adults instead.

I went back to grab my camera, eager to try out my new zoom lens. Ivy followed me outside, eager to smell what had happened overnight. Crows had started cawing in the direction we were headed, making it seem that they had found the owls and begun harassing them. But as we walked the owls kept up their duet and the crows were arguing among themselves.

I went slowly, scanning the canopy ahead. We startled a herd of deer, and they fled in a long line of dark figures among the tree trunks. These deer are used to being hunted, while the ones where I work live on a refuge. Sometimes I have to shoo those deer out of my way, which offends them. As their white tails disappeared, the owls stopped. I snapped a few pictures of the snowscape which came out dark and unfocused, then headed back.

Chickadees twittered above me, then disappeared. A goldfinch moved quickly overhead, unseen. Crows flying towards the ruckus in the distance were too high and fast through the branches for my camera to focus on. The winter flocks were foraging elsewhere and I had other things to do. Oh well. The light wasn’t that great, anyway.