I have looked and looked for River Otters out in the Great Smoky National Park (GSMNP) and have never found them. I posted an eagle a day for the month of February, and got behind in my other adventures. I found these guys in Central Illinois on Feb 15th.
I was pretty sure something big was keeping the hole in the ice open. I was guessing beaver, but there wasn’t any tree damage around. It wasn’t long before this one must have ran out of breath and popped his head out!
Less than a minute later a second one shot out.
The second one the smaller of the two started to chase the larger one around. I am guessing he was the male, but no way to tell!
I think spring must have been in the air, because it looked like Otter foreplay! The twenty or so minutes while I watched and photographed them I kept hearing Muskrat Love playing in my head.
Ahhhh! They were cuddling!
However the larger one looked kind of annoyed and put off, so she had to be the female! It was the day after Valentines day and maybe he forgot the card, flowers and chocolates!
Life is good and I am blessed!
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Hunting for Owls
Ray and I weren’t the only critters out hunting for Snowy Owls.
We found 6 sightings, but really nothing close enough for great photos. I am hoping this red fox didn’t find any!
Life is good and I am blessed!
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Canon 24-70 into the water!
Lost my cool and threw my Canon 24-70mm mark i into the water! **Yikes**
Life is good and I am blessed!
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Red Tail Hawk
The hawks of central Illinois are very skittish! Many a time I have slowed a vehicle down in an attempt to photograph one out a car window. Couple weeks ago I was able to drive right under one and photograph through my sunroof! Closest I have been to a wild hawk.
Life is good and I am blessed!
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Snowy Owls of Lee County Illinois Feb 28th 2015
After finishing up with the frozen waterfalls of Starved Rock State Park early Saturday Feb 28th due to ice climbers on the falls. We were already two thirds of the way to Rochelle and had little to no wind and really good light. Even though I didn’t have all my big glass we decided to buzz on up to see if we could find any of Lee County Snowy Owls that has shown up again this winter. I only had my new 100-400mm MKii. I carried it on my Canon 1DX during the hike in Starved Rock in case I found a great horned owl on her nest.
Six or 7 different owls, 4 or 5 males, and only 2 females way out in the field. Last year there was only 1 male and 14 females. I posted the 4 different locations of these photos on ebird.org.
Life is good and I am blessed!
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