One Season to the Next....: So, What Was in the Photo with Me????

Tuesday, March 24, 2026

So, What Was in the Photo with Me????

Hello!! On Saturday, I posted a picture asking if you all could spot something in the photo. Here is the photo again and the link to the post if you want to check it out!

Look really close over my shoulder. Right side of the picture toward the back sitting on a limb!!!

Can you spot it now?

I was hiking and stopped to grab some water and seen something move out of the corner of my eye.

To my shock it was larger than I expected! I have never seen one in person. It was soooo close to the trail. It was also low to the ground. I was taken back. It looked really sleepy. But later when I came back toward my car it had moved up higher in a tree. I was truly so close I could have went up to it and hugged it. Well, I didn't and respected its home and privacy. Typically, but not always they are nocturnal creatures.

What is that you may or may not can spot??????

Oh, how I wished my phone took better pictures!!!! So, with that I will be getting a lightweight waterproof camera for my hiking and waterfall adventures. I see so many wonderful things and while most of the time my phone camera does okay.... not all the time. And this is one of those times I could not get the beauty of this wonderful creature captured the way I seen it in person.

I also was sooo close to it I get have gotten closer, but I wanted to respect it and not scare it either. After all I am in its habitat, and I would not want some crazy lady barging in my home with a phone in my face. :)

A Barred Owl. It is lovely. A lot larger in person than I expected. It kept rotating its head looking at me when I walked. Which was neat and creepy at the same time. :) This was really a BIG owl. Larger Owls are usually the female. I assume this one was. They can get up to 2 feet. I would say this one was close or if not that. The pictures do not do it justice.

Barred owls are primarily nocturnal but exhibit flexible activity patterns, often hunting during twilight and even during the day.

After I took a few shots, I headed on my way to finish the out and back trail, which means, I will come back out the same way I started the trail. I was so hoping I would see this beauty again.

Here is my hiking stick making its debut. It will always have a memento picture and debut in my hiking memories. :)

I took my time on this trail. I stopped and took photos, sat on a bench and watched the butterflies, and listened to the flow of the creek and prayed. I am not a fast hiker all the time. There are times (well ALL THE TIME) I like to enjoy the scenery on a hike. I like to "stop to smell the roses" as the saying goes. I like to notice the little, tiny flowers, the moss on a rock or limb, a neat leaf, butterflies dancing along the water, I like to pick up pretty rocks and find little neat images to capture.

This was a neat little thing I came across deep in the foothills on path not traveled much. It was a hollow log with moss but looked like it was a little set up out of a fairy village.

Moving along! Once I was heading back, I was walking with great anticipation that I would hopefully see the owl again. I did!!! It was in a tree this time.