Vacation - Part 2 - Hyde Park

From Strasburg, we drove up to Hyde Park, NY to see Kev's parents.  It was so nice out that we decided to take a walk (or in Daphne's case, a scoot) over the Hudson River on the old rail bridge, which has been fixed up for that purpose.

When we got back to the house, we ordered my favorite bbq chicken wrap from Coco's and had a little birthday celebration.  It has become tradition that Kev's mom gets me a watermelon cake from Friendly's for my birthday every year.  So good. 

As we sat down to eat the cake, who showed up but this BARRED OWL!!!!!

See him there, blending in with the tree?  You can click the picture if you want to make him bigger. It was so dang cool.  Only my second owl sighting ever, and this was a really good one.  He sat there for a long time, letting us take pictures of him before he flew off into the woods.

On a similar evening in 2005, certain Long Island mischief makers made fake owl sounds and tossed stuffed owls at me on the porch of this same house in Hyde Park.  This real owl was much better.  But I wish they had been there to see him too.

I did not experience any lost time, and could not find any evidence of probes.  So I'm putting it in my bird log as a real sighting and not an alien mind trick.

Also on this trip, we saw a green heron and a pileated woodpecker and a family of wild turkeys.  My interest in bird-watching has been rekindled.  Hooray for vacation!

Coming soon:  Wake Fun.