I suddenly had time free on Sunday, and since I’d got an email from Mark that he was meeting a wildlife photographer,

Jason G. Harrison

off I went to meet both of them.

Mark spent a while with printed photographs and points from a Powerpoint presentation to give Jason a short history of his interest in the

Great Horned Owls

…. we then moved to the area near the Muny to try and sight some Barred Owls. Result? Barred Owls 0, Wood Ducks, several…and one Cooper’s Hawk that flew by into a distant tree as Mark was talking.

Here are Mark and Jason:

And here's Jason taking out his camera: He uses a Nikon D300 and yesterday he had brought the 200-400mm f/4 and not his favourite for birding, the 600 mm, he said. I did not dare to ask him if this was what he meant.... oh, well, I looked at his blog page on the online photography magazine (click on his name and you will go to that page) and I found both his photography, and his keenness to get a particular photograph, very impressive. Well...in the event, it started raining, and Jason quickly packed up his precious equipment...and of the Barred Owls there was no sign. We just saw these WOOD DUCKS upon the water: and we enjoyed seeing some of them...well...duck! Meanwhile, DnA came by to pick me up and I was quite happy to walk behind them as they passed over a bridge over the Des Peres creek:

You don’t believe that it was raining? Here!