Day 250: My botany partner Joe has sharp eyes, so when I noticed him staring at a large glob of moss in a distant maple in the deep shade of the Chehalis-Western Trail, I knew I wasn't seeing the whole picture. "Whatcha got?" I said. "I think it's a Great Horned Owl," he replied. As the only person of the four of us with any zoom capability, I brought my camera up for a better look. Owl's "horns" were obvious even in profile, and when it turned its head, I could see the distinctive feather pattern around the eyes. But Owl was having a little snooze, eyes closed. I took a series of twenty or so photos, and then we walked on. At the two-mile mark, 97-year old Bronka Sundstrom suggested we turn around before the rain moved in. As we again approached the owl's maple, we saw a crow harrassing the larger bird. Owl was now awake and watching the crow, although it wasn't particularly concerned about it. I sat down on the ground at the edge of the trail so that I could stabilize the camera on my knee, hoping that the owl would turn to face the lens. After several minutes with no luck, I tried hooting. Then I tried cawing. The owl wasn't impressed. Over to my left, Joe was fussing with his phone and eventually brought up a series of recordings of Great Horned Owl vocalizations. One, harsher than the others, carried to our subject and made it turn toward us briefly. In that moment, I snapped this photo which, with the magic of post-processing, I've been able to enhance sufficiently to record the sighting.
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