Learning to Fly

Learning to fly - had plummeted from a high tree the day before - so he'd been on the ground and scrambled up a tree - I also have some shots of him running along the trail trying to get some lift.

Quite an amazing time, it was so special, like being in the middle of a documentary watching this fledgling's saga unfold.

Eryn has never seen owls before, so this will be a memory of a lifetime for her too.

There are three adults watching over this one. They didn't seem to mind us, but I didn't want to get too close, you never know - those claws sure are sharp.

My first pic of the series is him in the tree, about 40 or more feet up.

The second is of a watching, juvenile bard owl. One of the kids always comes back the following year to help the parents rear - so there are usually three birds around as they feed around the clock. This nest has 3 chicks, he's the first to be out.

So his scrambling in the tree got him his twig souvenir, (see wing) he shakes it off as he flies, but I quite liked this shot where it was still on the wing.