I hear the squirrels are numerous, big and tasty! Photo taken from the comfort of my living room with the fireplace warming the house. This Barred Owl stayed all day and was only 20 feet away from me at the time I snapped this photograph. When the temperature is -24F outside each morning, this is the way to go birding! (glass of wine in hand … Chardonnay of course).

Well actually -23F, but the alliteration sounds better on just the plain word “twenty”. Anyhow at 7:45 am this morning I was filling my own bird feeders (all eight of them), and noticed as I moved off a few feet that the chickadees seemed upset. I looked up and realized my feeders had another visitor, a Barred Owl! I could not have been more than six feet away from the owl at this time.  The Barred Owl has now flown around our yard a bit, but is presently back to the same exact perch right above one of the feeders where I first saw the bird … the first image shown … ten yards from our living room window!

First view … and the owl is now back two hours later at 9:45 am in the same exact spot.

More views of the new “Amity Owl”! It flew around the yard a bit as the Chickadees chased it from perch to perch.

Photo taken by my wife, Molly, with her iPhone!

It was warm this morning at my house at the north edge of Duluth (-18F as opposed to -22F yesterday). Thus, in my pajamas I went outside before dawn to capture the crescent moon! Apparently the chill factor was in the -40F to -50F range. This weather should continue for another week.