Great Backyard Bird Count

This is the third year Steve and I have participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count, sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Audubon, and Bird Studies Canada. The count takes place over four days, from Friday, February 12 through Monday, February 15. The count creates a real-time snapshot of birds across the continent, and anyone can join in -- you don't have to be an expert birder to record the birds in your area.

Steve took the photo above of these hooded mergansers on the pond near the house. And below, a few more snapshots...

A California towhee, eyeballing Steve near the trail.

And a yellow-rumped warbler, shortly after emerging from a bath in the creek.

This is a spotted towhee (formerly known as a rufous-sided towhee, the name I'll forever call it; why did they change it, anyway?)...

...and last, a dark-eyed junco (formerly known as the Oregon junco -- ditto above).

Great Horned Owl Chicks

Steve took this photo of these very fat and fluffy great horned owl chicks while working as a wildlife biologist at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Oregon some 900 years ago. We're older now, but ever optimistic, and if we're lucky we'll have some owlets in the redwood trees next to the house this year. Only one problem: where's the nest?