h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thanks for letting us know. I am also impressed by the textured branch on which he is sitting. You convey a wealth of info of this type of tree as well. Very .

Hi Elektra! Thanks for reading and for your comment. I wish I knew just what kind of tree it was! But anyways, I generally try and make the 'environment' in which my crittur is situated interesting as well.

I like it too Willem

I was thinking today about how often I have seen an owl in the wild and I can only remember once although I have heard them more often.

I have seen some rescued owls up close and you ae right about their stare,I find it a very stern look, which made me feel apologetic, for what I don't know, silly also.

Spiller got Hiccup an 'owl pellet' for Christmas some time ago, gleefully for children of that age it was called owl puke. It came with a tray and a book about owls and an identification section so you could dissect all the bones out of it and identify what they were.

She enjoyed the activity and took the tray of bones to school for 'show and tell' and got house points for it.

And when anyone asked her what she got for christmas she said owl puke

What a great story.

Heh heh thanks for that story Peanut! I'm glad other people also appreciate owls.

I am very lucky to have encountered all our local owl species (and there are many) except three: the grass owl, the cape eagle owl and the fishing owl. The wood owl I've heard but not seen. The others: spotted eagle owl, giant eagle owl, marsh owl, barred owlet, pearl-spotted owlet, scops owl, white-faced owl and barn owl, I've all seen in Nature. I've seen and handled up close barn owls, and seen in rehab centres spotted eagle owls, giant eagle owls and white-faced owls. I always want to see them even closer and better in Nature, and the ideal is of course to get a good photo for myself! I've managed a decent photo of a white-faced owl in a cage, blind in one eye ... which I managed to fix with Photoshop!

I am glad you both liked the story

I have been trying to think what in nature I don't appreciate, while I don't appreciate at all the harm that pathogens and some parasites cause, I find them fascinating, and their adaptions and specialities are as awesome as anything elses, so I think that is a kind of appreciation

I am not very good at photography and have a tendancy to just gawp and miss the moment, while I haven't seen owls I have seen a sparrowhawk and hen harrier from feet away, one on a gate post and one on a fence post, just gawped at those and a buzzard on my patio, nearly fell over with surprise at that one, firstly because it was a unexpected visitor and it was eating a chicken drumstick I had left out for the cat and I didn't associate it with scavanging like that

We think wildlife photography is hard now, and takes patience. The professional, of course, have high-speed and motor drive and 300-meter telescopic lenses.

I used to take pretty good butterfly pics using 1000-speed film, back in the day.

This makes me think of that wonderful wildlife photographer, Gene Stratton Porter, also author of books like 'Freckles' and 'Girl of the Limberlost'.

Can you imagine what she went through to get photos? With a box camera? Hiding in the bushes for hours?

I don't think I have the patience. But sometimes you can get lucky and that would do me, if only I would stop gawping! Hiccup can take a good shot, she has a good eye and Spiller has some reasonable equipment and she has that instinct, to take a picture and not gawp