Number 80...

Wow - what a day!  This photo shows my 80th species for the 4-day Great Backyard Bird Count...baby Great Horned Owls.  In the words of birders...owlets.  Seriously, have you ever seen anything cuter than baby owls?  I took this from a distance of about 100 yards, fully zoomed and then cropped ridiculously.  Not a super quality photo.  Doesn't matter - this is the photo I want to post to remember this day.  I try to always make sure I adhere to good nature photography etiquette which demands that I never cause stress to the subjects I am photographing.  The park puts up a barricade to keep people a safe distance from any raptor nests - I always stay on my side of the barricade.  These little ones will need every chance they can get to survive - they don't need humans wrecking their chances!

If you'd like to see another photo of the young owlets, along with about 10 other shots from today (second one is Mama), please click HERE on Flickr...

Tomorrow is supposed to bring rainy weather - which is probably good because I need to get some packing done, and work on changing our car insurance.  And Wednesday morning, we leave for the east coast of FL for a couple of days  of photography (well, photos for me, R & R for hubs!)  

TTFN, good people!

Debbi