What started out to be a 'spur of the moment' get together with birders and friends Linda Rockwell and Donna Simonetti, this ended up to be one of my best birding experiences. The Little Toad Creek Inn & Tavern hosted the "Hummingbird Celebration" just north of Silver City, New Mexico. This drew together our common interest: birds. Speaker Joan Day-Martin gave a very nice presentation about hummingbird identification. Later that morning we went into the Gila National Forest and enjoyed a splendid afternoon hiking and taking photos of deer,flowers,mushrooms,beetles etc. On Sunday after breakfast we hiked onto a different trail and no words can explain the excitement of viewing this magnificent creature: the Spotted Owl! I have never EVER viewed or photographed an owl in the wild, so this was a big event for me. We all felt the mystical aura of this endangered Owl and were so happy he obliged us many happy and precious photos of him:)
Spotted Owl - Gila National Forest - near Mimbres, New Mexico
My short video of preening Spotted Owl
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| Donna Simonetti & son Juan |
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| Linda Rockwell, Cynthia White, Donna Simonetti |
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| Can one ever have enough cameras? :) |
