Banff National Park. Rocky Mountains steaming off in the morning.
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Went hiking along a bay today. Was pretty tough. You’ll notice that along the edges the sand is all washed out away from the roots and so you are basically having to balance the whole time. They are sturdy, but still move snd are often fairly slippery. Ended up find some driftwood that was a bit soaked. It’s not quite 100% driftwood but is definitely almost there. It ended up weighing just under 60lbs but felt like a ton after carrying it almost a mile across the terrain. I almost gave up a few times. But once I commit to doing something I do it. Hiked over 15 miles total today.
Brought it back to use as part of a seaside influenced fairy house for my niece. Still have to do quite a bit of drilling and cutting on its insides and sanding down some of the outside.
In the second to last pic you can see the stump in the debris that I saw and liked which ended up in my van in the last pic. In the second to last pic you’ll also notice that tiny blue water tower in the background. That’s where I was parked.
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Took me a minute to find the pic I had. Have to excuse the ILU hand gesture. Took it for my fiancée. But it shows come off the crescent moons on the ground created by shinning through the leaves during the eclipse.
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The first time I’ve been out of the house since Saturday – a couple more inches of snow and -23°F (-31°C) Monday and Tuesday morning temps. 
I’m thankful the old geothermal (groundwater source) heat pump kept running, but I discovered another ‘feature’ that I didn’t know about: after four hours of running continuously, the compressor shuts off for five minutes – I was unduly concerned the first time it happened!
So, what made the tracks – a bunny on cross-country skis?:
And these are interesting/asymmetrical/artistic – a lame critter?:
The large disturbed areas are from deer pawing through the snow, foraging:
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There is a burrowing owl in this photo but it has its back to us and is hard to see. This is today on a Sunday when there will be thousands of people and their dogs passing by. This is at Point Isabel on the San Francisco bay at an old landfill which has become a large dog park. The little guy has made burrow, apparently, between the large boulders on the edge of the park at the point furthest from the entrance.
The next two photos I took from the other side to see his face. But I was so far away with my cell phone that I had to enlarge the image beyond what makes for an attractive picture. I find it amazing and also encouraging that this creature is finding a little habitat on our fringes. If only more could do so.
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I love owls. We had a saw-whet owl on a low branch over the tent in our yard that the boys were staying out overnight in when the were young. As we turned to leave them one night, I thought they were messing with a window or door zipper. It was the tiny owl, and it sounded just like one of the zippers! 
(Guess where they get their name from. ) I get to hear great horned owls fairly frequently, and see some too – they have the classic owl hoot.
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As a kid in Africa, screech owls would scare the bejeepers out of me when the screamed outside my window in the morning. (I’m not sure what kind of owl they were exactly–just that they were big, white, and loud). we have noisy owls with a typical “hoo, hoo” here in Michigan, too, though I seldom see them. One bird I’ve seen from a distance, but would like to see more closely, is bald eagles. They are making quite a comeback. I really like the burrowing owl pictures, @MarkD! thanks!
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Randy I’ve never heard a screech owl but I bet I can find a recording online. Growing up in San Diego we frequently visited the zoo. Th bird whose call made the biggest impression was the Kookaburra, whose popular name - if memory serves- is the jackass bird. Didn’t sound as scary as the screech owl But for shear volume it would be hard to beat. Peacocks are loud but that loud.
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Two years ago, March 5, above our lane (they migrate through the area, fairly common near a reservoir 45 miles from here, but this was unusual). I’ve seen a solitary one flying a couple of other times, but decades ago.
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That is a bird I’d like to see but never have. When my stepson was younger I read him every animal story you can imagine most, but not all, of which I had read before. One of them was about a nesting pair of bald eagles who get beat up and kicked out of their nest by a pair of great horned owl. It probably didn’t require too much actual use of force, the eagles would understand the score and move on.
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That’s surprising! This was supposed to be an actual account?
Bald eagles were as common as buzzards when we went to Alaska on a cruise. We get a few around the lakes here in central Texas.
The burrowing owls remind me of the small owls that live in prairie dog burrows in west Texas. Do those owls make their burrows or live in burrows made by other animals, I wonder.
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I can’t tell from this one since, if it has a burrow, it is between the rocks. There are also ground squirrels that some dogs never give on trying catch. So maybe the owl has made use of something one of them made?
It was in the form of a story so I’m not sure. But if I had to bet, my money would be on the horned owls - especially if the fight took place at night.
@Dale, not the same story but it looks like the owl is physically no match and yet at least sometimes the victor.
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I was wondering how much their ranges overlap, and their nesting.
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Looks like the eagle’s need for open water nearby made the lake a poor choice to begin with. So every year (for at least two years) the eagles would add to the nest and then fly off for the winter. And then the owls would move in and not allow the eagles to retake it. I had always assumed that owl was a near size match after reading that story. Wrong!
I think it has to have been just a story.
The bald eagle has a body length of 70–102 cm (28–40 in). Typical wingspan is between 1.8 and 2.3 m (5 ft 11 in and 7 ft 7 in) and mass is normally between 3 and 6.3 kg (6.6 and 13.9 lb).[6] Females are about 25% larger than males, averaging as much as 5.6 kg (12 lb), and against the males’ average weight of 4.1 kg (9.0 lb)
Adult great horned owls range in length from 43 to 64 cm (17 to 25 in), with an average of 55 cm (22 in), and possess a wingspan of 91 to 153 cm (3 ft 0 in to 5 ft 0 in), with an average of 122 cm (48 in). Females are somewhat larger than males.[10][11] Mean body weight is 1,608 g (3.545 lb) for females and 1,224 g (2.698 lb) for males.[12][13] Depending on subspecies, maximum weight can reach 2,503 g (5.518 lb).[14]
Surprisingly …
It’s logical that the much larger eagle should have no problem getting a great horned owl to do its bidding. But no. While it may not be much of a nest-builder, the great horned owl is fierce, while a bald eagle is laid back, some even say lazy. No match for the owl.
So the great horned owls used the nest in 2004 while the eagle pair remained nest-less and nearby, Pelton reports. The following year, after the great horned owls did not return to the nest, the bald eagles resumed bringing nest materials to the site. Bald eagles have a strong nest-building instinct and will refurbish a nest year after year. One bald eagle nest in New Hampshire was observed being occupied for 45 years.
But again in 2005, although the eagles refurbished the nest, they did not lay eggs. And again the following year, the great horned owls got to the nest first and laid their eggs there.
… and …
The great horned owls are not the bad guys. They’ve been stealing nests from bald eagles for millennia
Sometimes it isn’t the size of the bird that determines the winner of the fight but rather the fight in the bird. (I still think their ability to operate at night would also play into it. What bald eagle would want to be on eggs only to be attacked and driven off at night?)
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I can only imagine how this must have sounded to my young ears.
Around 2:50 for Ms. Screech Owl:
And for @Dale, looks like it does sometimes go down as you imagined. I guess the Bald Eagle isn’t always put off by the owl’s ‘bark’.
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Here is another interesting video of an octopus that beat an eagle
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