Owl Flight

Went to breakfast, then went back to sleep, so got late start...walked over to Post Office around 1 and coming out I walked past the Shuttle stops to the road and glimpsed the Hawk going to the same tree it went to yesterday! Rather than give chase I just sat on a roadside boulder and waited. After five minutes or so the Hawk usually flys up to another tree...got a clip...followed...got another flight clip...and a sketch of the old elm!...gotta do something while waiting!..but the clips are long distance...went to lunch...and then went out to Two Top Ponderosa Pine Meadow...the one beneath Sentinel!...and walked along Merced...there's an old stone wall...and some secluded gravel beaches...afraid I ruined a couple's solitude...and made my way to Swinging Bridge...clip of Raven...then crossed the bridge and made a left into the meadow...this is where I think Ayers did his drawing of the Falls...first drawing done in the Valley...and saw another Hawk swoop down to ground ahead...thought to get a great pic as sun was low at my back...but no...too many leaves on the ground....Hawk took notice and flew off...I thought...but no...it flew right towards me...and whoosh up to a tree above my head...tried to get clip of flight...but too clumsy..did get clip and pics of Hawk in the tree..but too silhouetted...and then...doggone..two joggers came up behind me, running loud on the leaves...I tried to shush them...but the Hawk flew off low right over the picnickers...expressed a lament to another photog about the joggers...and he consoled.."There'll be more Hawks"...and Owls!...I went over to Owl Log just in time to see Half Dome turn pink, and while snacking on animal cookies heard...screech...screech...in the distance in the Creek woods...took my time eating cookies, and thought, 'What are you doing!'..and quickly gathered things up...just a little into the trees past Lodgepole Point I saw another Owl high in a pine...and could hear the other screeching near...I wonder if these two are mom and baby....took clips...then followed the screeches out into Cook's Meadow...where I got clip at very last light of the Owl screeching on the top of pine(cedar)...and it's flight away.

I was delighted, but over dinner these long winded descriptions are boring my friends!!

When I was standing on the path by the Woodpecker Tree, the Owl flew over between me and the tree...that close! as close as the Hawk earlier!

There's like only a fifteen minute window once I hear them and the light becoming too dim...I have to try this in the morning...