Owl late afternoon | Bellevue Photographer

Saw this guy and a few of his friends up in the trees in the late afternoon.  When they take flight, they are majestic.

Bellevue Photographer | Wildlife abounds this week!

This is a great horned owl that was sitting on a limb in my neighbors tree.  My neighbors know that I shot nature and wildlife for years before starting my lifestyle portraiture business in 2007 and that I missed him when he was in my yard and visible a few months back.  They were kind enough to call me this morning and let me know the owl was back.  I promptly grabbed my camera, threw on my rubber boots and headed outside in my jammies to get this shot.
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The owl came back tonight!

I've been watching for this little guy since the other night when I first saw him. Tonight we came in from the snow and there he was sitting on one of the bird feeders. I was so happy to see him, but I needed to cook dinner and when I came back from doing the dinner dishes, he was still out there!

A new visitor tonight...

I was working in my office tonight and I must admit, I have this knack for knowing when something in my yard shouldn't be there. It can be almost completely dark, but if one shadow is out of place, or something shouldn't be out there, I can tell. (OK, not fair, I was asleep when the bear came to visit...)

Well, I looked up at what we call "the bird condo" that Paul built a few years back and I saw something up there, but it was so dark I couldn't make it out. Paul was in the living room with his headset on listening to music on his computer, so I im'd him to "Drop whatever you're doing and come in here quickly and quietly."

Paul came in and I had my flashlight on it, but neither Paul, or I couldn't tell what it was as it's head was turned away from us and then I asked Paul to grab the granddaddy of flashlights while I grabbed my camera.

It wasn't until I was looking through a 200mm lens, I saw what it was--An owl! This was exciting, because we've seen a lot of different birds and wildlife in our yard (just last night we saw a five point buck saunter past my office window about midnight,) but we've never seen an owl on our property.