Having gone on the

St.Louis Audubon Society’s Monthly Bird Walk in Forest Park

I decided that the evening weather was also too good to waste and at 4pm, I called up

Mark Glenshaw

and off I went to see the Great Horned Owls, who had become partners and also parents while I had been away.

Behind the World’s Fair Pavilion, Mark pointed out Charles sitting high up in a conifer…

Photographing these owls is always a tough job, as it's always a low-light situation; if I aim straight up into the tree, I get only that mass-of-feathers shot, and if I try to catch the owls head on, it's against the sinking light: Well, in any case, the light was rapidly failing as we moved over to see Sarah, who had flown out of the nest tree , and was perched on a tree a fair distance behind it: We looked carefully at the nest in the gathering gloom, and I seemed to see a little owlet eye: ...but Mark assures me that's only a bit of wood! However, there was no doubt at all that the little ones were moving in the nest...you can see the movement in the crevice: Here are Mark and Wendy, keeping tabs on the nest and the parents: Wendy isn't *supposed* to be a birdwatcher, but my bet is that she's quite an expert on this owl couple by now!

Thrilled by the prospect of seeing the entire owl family soon, I came home wtih my family…and meanwhile, agreed to go with another friend, Umesh, when he went to Queeny Park on Sunday morning….post coming up as soon as I get id’s for all the (common) birds I saw there, in just half-an-hour of birding!