Short Earred Owl, Harrier, Moose (20140221) A quick evening investigation.

With a "Hot tip" about lurking SEO's not too far from town. I enlisted the assistance of Tim and Jamie as more eyes are better when trying to spot these birds flying at last light. We were on the road by 3:30 and down to "the spot" a little early so we took a short tour around that netted us a pair of female Northern Harriers. Jamie has supplied us with me with a shot for this post.

We passed a herd of 15-20 deer, and missed out on a lovely white Snowy resting in a roadside tree. As we did a bit of a cruise to provide that bird with some time to settle, we found this pair of moose, a young bull, with his momma.

We positioned ourselves and started to see owls appear and disappear in the rolling valley, occasionally landing on a fence post to give us a viewing.
I apologize for the poor quality of these images as I am making adjustments to my shooting style and I expect that things will get worse before they get better.

I will post a couple of flight shots here, but again they are very poor.

These are beautiful birds, and I am conspiring to get our again in order to get better images.

So considering the lateness of the evening and poor conditions of wind, clouds and late light it was an exceptional evening. Surprize moose, a herd of deer and what might be the first of the returning Harriers had us all in a very positive mood.  I am hoping to get some better images for you soon!
Turbo