Nature Note #161: Long Awaited on the Bog Trail
After spending a mid March Monday afternoon birding at Montezuma NWR, I decided to head over the Beaver Lake Nature Center to see if I could find any Snows (the geese, not the egrets or the owls). I didn't luck out there, so on a whim I decided to look for the Long-eared Owls that had been reported earlier in the month. I didn't expect to see them until I heard the screaming call of a jay in the conifers by the Bog Trail. I stopped dead on the boardwalk and looked into the branches, hoping to see something. Round, yellow eyes stared back at me through the tangle of conifer boughs and bare branches. They were rimmed by a rusty orange face and gold-trimmed horns while a black beak rested below those watching eyes. I gasped with shock as I was gazing , unexpectedly, at a Long-eared Owl ( Asio otus )! I was so excited! I manically clicked away, grumbling as the dribbling rain threatened to dampen the camera lens and ruin the image. The owl continued to stare as I cleaned