Local Stories by Local People

Birds and B-flies
By John Wiley

This afternoon Jo took us back to the place where she saw owls at the Coronado Butterfly Preserve. We watched, waited, listened, and just when we decided to give up on them to go visit the Monarchs, she noticed something unusual. A hummingbird was chattering at her, so she stood motionless and sure enough it went into stealth mode and settled on a nest. Even knowing where to look, we kept losing sight of her but managed to snap a few photos.

To give her some privacy we did then go visit the butterflies, and took more photos. From the time of our arrival at Ellwood until we left smiling for the short walk back, we kept listening and scanning all the trees for owls.

Of course it was again Jo who spotted them as we paused walking out. They were bemusedly watching us from just a few feet away. The one with flash-induced "red eye" was larger and higher up in the tree, so we guessed it might be a mated pair. I've put different/larger pix on my Photo Page.

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