and then there's the OWLS

Yup ... the nest-that-gets-reused-year-in-and-year-out has TENANTS ... Great Horned Owls !!!

It's been quite the Springtime around Quail Oaks, that's for sure.

Yesterday, friend Victoria came by mid-day with her friend, nature photographer Chris Mayne, to pay the nesting GHO's a little visit.

I captured this, using my oh-so-lowly Canon G9 {which, as digital cameras go, actually quite ROCKS ...}.

It's just that Chris totes a bazooka-sized CANON with a lens you can't believe ... too bad I didn't get a pic of him. ANYWAY. {and as an aside, it's Chris' wife CAROL MAYNE that did two paintings in our home ... one of Figueroa Mountain near Santa Barbara, and the other of the original house that was right here at Quail Oaks ... but that's another story!}

We couldn't detect any owls sitting in the nest in the hot sun, BUT Chris said 'hmmm ... we're being watched.'

It was rather spooky, 'cause just one minute later he says 'there she is' and he pointed to a nearby Torrey Pine tree {in neighbor Louis' yard} ... and here's what I got:

Wow. Great Horned Owls one day; Coyotes the next. Not to mention the daily ... hawks, finches, sparrows, Phoebes, Towhees, hummingbirds, bush tits, White Crowned Sparrows, etc etc etc ... it's PARADISE around here.

I now fear leaving the house without my camera -- you never know what's going to show up next around here!

-- Davielle