Sleeping Owl

It had been a while since DW and I had visited Mud Lake, so last Sunday's outing was long overdue. We had tried to get in the habit of getting out in nature, and Mud Lake is a good place to go.

We usually bring our cameras, as there is plenty of wildlife to capture: all sorts of water fowl and other birds, as well as squirrels, chipmunks, and other critters. But there is one creature that I've seen in other people's social media photos that I have been unsuccessful at capturing, myself.

Until last Sunday.

We've known that the woods surrounding Mud Lake are home to screech owls, yet we had never sighted one ourselves. With much of the autumn leaves on the ground, we hoped that we'd be able to spy one through the bare branches. And so we kept our eyes on the lookout along the trail.

There was a lot to see. At the start of the trail, where it comes close to an opening to the lake, there are always plenty of mallard and wood ducks to photograph. Chickadees approach you on nearby branches, all but begging for seeds.

We usually forget to bring any.

Within a minute of walking on the path, we encountered three turkeys: two males and a female. They were curious about us but we kept a respectful distance from each other. Further in, we spied some wigeons further out on the lake, too far from me to be able to capture any sharp images with my 70–300mm lens.

I even ran into a colleague from work, who I hadn't seen since before the pandemic and who was also taking photos on the trail. What are the chances?

We got as far as the other side of the lake but a fence prevented us from going across a wooden bridge, so we turned around. We had seen all of the wildlife that we were going to see on this hike.

Or so we thought.

As we made our way back toward our car, we could see a few people gathered a short ways ahead of us, looking into the trees. One person had set up a tripod with his camera angled upward.

We approached quietly and followed their gaze.

It was a screech owl, sleeping high up in a dead tree.

We may have never spotted it without those folks, but now that we know where it was, we'll look for it the next time we're out for our walk on Mud Lake.

Happy Friday!