2-20-2011: further into the copse, keys, a burrow, fence-tree, hole in a tree, an owl surprise!

[ferine]

After padding through the leaf-strewn copse, we made our way around the now mostly dry swamp toward the river. At a bend, someone had hung a set of keys from a branch. We noticed a hollow, or maybe a burrow, at the base of a scraggly tree. A metal fence post was overlapped by a tree, and struck me as significant; given time, the wild will absorb everything again. Holes in trees always tickle my imagination. And then we were surprised by flushing a Great Horned Owl out of the underbrush! It was close, and huge. Jay barely had time to attempt a shot--it can be seen in the last photo (upper left).