Photo of the month September 2014

[EllenW]

Happy labor day everyone.

Please post your September photos here!

[linrose]

I was pretty excited to have a close encounter with this barred owl in the field yesterday so I just had to enter him in the contest! I got to watch him (and he me) for quite a while. Awesome.

[EllenW]

That is awesome linrose. Thank you for our first September entry!

[Arey]

What a great picture. Congratulations on getting it.

[linrose]

Thanks! I really was moved, it was the first close encounter with an owl I've ever had.

[dapjwy]

Originally Posted by linrose

I was pretty excited to have a close encounter with this barred owl in the field yesterday so I just had to enter him in the contest! I got to watch him (and he me) for quite a while. Awesome.

That is really awesome! What an amazing encounter. I'd love to have one like that some day, too.

...and it really is an awesome picture as well! Great job.

[dapjwy]

Originally Posted by linrose

Thanks! I really was moved, it was the first close encounter with an owl I've ever had.

Just from your first post, I could tell how special the moment was to you. Just being able to watch him...and have him watch you for more than a fleeting moment has got to be special.

I like your signature line quote: “To be whole. To be complete. Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from.” Is it new?

[linrose]

That quote is from her memoir "Refuge", I read it years ago and it meant a lot to me. It only took me over four and a half years to submit a signature line so I'm a bit slow but patient, at least in this case. She's from Utah, the west, and that is not a place I know very well though I've spent time in New Mexico, Arizona and California. It's hard to put her in a category but she is a writer, an environmentalist and I strongly identify with her connection to the earth, solitude, and the power of relationships.

I could go on and on but I recommend her book, I found it transforming in my life. If you look at the title it means so many things, refuge, on the surface she talks about a bird refuge that was impacted by the flooding of the Great Salt Lake but it implies so much more. If you have the time pick it up and give it a read.

[disuhan]

Here's my hummingbird clearwing caterpillar chowing on a Viburnum dentatum seedling.

[EllenW]

I think it's very cool that you discovered that caterpillar disuhan. Very observant.