Honeymoon Island…

It’s not that I didn’t know that Honeymoon Island was there, but I thought of it only as the dog beach that we visited with my son and DIL, along with three dogs between us.  It was long enough ago that all three of those dogs are gone now, and Charley too.  But it was a photographer friend who posted pictures of two Great Horned Owl babies that he’d seen there who made me sit up and take notice.  He wrote so enthusiastically about how much he had enjoyed watching them interact with each other that I responded that I was going to have to go there and see them for myself.  He planned to go back the next day, he said, so I took him up on his offer to have me tag along, and I’m so glad I did.  I even got to use my year pass to the Florida State Parks for the first time since I bought it, saving the $8 entrance fee.  Good omens all the way around.  I always go off with the camera with a certain amount of fear that this will be the day that I don’t manage to get any ‘keepers’.  And I consider it a minor miracle when I do.  Luckily it was that sort of day yesterday.  Having a tour guide was a huge plus, thanks Larry.

He warned me not to use up my SD card as I took shot after shot of this little guy.  He assured me that the second one would pop up momentarily, but I couldn’t help myself, I just kept shooting.

And he was right, of course.  We watched for a long time, and I came away with lots of photos.  It was hard to choose favorites…

It was windy enough that the tree they were in had a certain amount of sway to it, and they eventually leaned into the tree beside them as if to shelter from the wind.  Another photographer spotted the mother in a neighboring tree but I wasn’t able to see her.  The nest was buzzed by a vulture at one point, making me nervous, but no harm no ‘fowl’.  Sorry, couldn’t help myself…