February 27th, 2005 is Oscar night. The blogosphere is humming with live blogging of the event: over at Ann's we have Simulblogging the Oscars; MSN has "Live Blogging the Oscars"; the BBC reports about bloggers blogging from behind the scenes...

While the Oscars are happening in the background Kevin and I are examining our photographs of a very successful birding weekend.

Saturday we decided to head out to Larimar County. Reports of Bald Eagles sighted in a clump of trees on some private property. We drove up there to see what all the fuss was about. Shoo. Cars were parked up and down the street, and people were standing on the side of the road, armed with their binoculars scanning the distant banks. Kevin and I were excited - and immediately scooted over. I began scanning the trees for bald eagles. Now here is a hat tip: Bald Eagles are not difficult to spot. They are not like owls who are wretchedly difficult to spot. Just look out for a big blob, with a white head and a white tail. No problemo! After doing my scan I concluded that the eagles had long since flown off. As we walked to the car, I had this feeling, that perhaps we just witnessed an Emperor's new clothes situation. No one seemed to be admitting too loudly that they could not find the Bald Eagles.

In order to assuage our need to see Bald Eagles we turned south to Boulder County and our favorite spots where we have had excellent sightings of Bald Eagle. We were not disappointed and managed to find and photograph an excellent shot of a Bald Eagle - back again for another season. We also headed for Sawhill ponds to video our Greater Horned Owl. We got him hooting, and displaying some breeding behavior - rubbing his beak, and carrying a small rodent around.

Sunday (today) we headed off to the Wheat Ridge Green Belt to see whether we could locate an Eastern Screech Owl that had been reported only yesterday. This area is wonderful habitat - lots of big trees, thick dense bushes, and easily accessible water. We met some fellow birders who had spotted the little owl only yesterday. Luckily for us they pointed us to the tree where he had last been spotted. Disappointed that we had missed out again Kevin took a picture of the site for reference. The next second, out he popped: the most beautiful sleepy looking owl. Kevin had a marvelous time taking photo's. The owl was quite calm, and kept so still it would be quite easy to miss him. We decided to leave the little owl and walked back to the parking lot.

There we met up with 2 birders who wanted to know if we had spotted the owl. I thought it only fair to pass it on - as someone else had been kind enough to us to show us "the spot". They were delighted to find the little guy.

Out of respect for the owl I am not describing where he was hiding. If you want to know more I suggest you go here. This is a real birder's site.