Northern Potoo

Ray and I are currently in Mexico.  Looking for birds.  One place in Mexico is really renowned for being a birder's dream and that is where we have started our trip.  San Blas, Nayarit.  I will do a full trip report on it when we get home to give people the information I found so difficult to find when planning this trip, but today I am just sharing one bird.  The Northern Potoo.

This is the bird in the daytime. It is the king of camouflage.

And this is a Northern Potoo a couple hours later, full darkness, and no, my flash is not that strong. The boatman had a spotlight. Not sure how the Potoo liked it, but it allowed me to take a photo (and see a bird) that I couldn't have done any other way.

Oh, right. The top photo is its back.

Snowy Owl

Among all the bird photos I've taken in the last eight years (since I've had a digital camera) there has been one notable absence. I did not have a single photo of a Snowy Owl. Not even a bad one.  This year I decided to remedy that situation. It has not been as easy as I thought.  Once I started carrying my camera every where I went, the Snowy Owls stopped sitting on the poles near our farm.  Or they sat there when a vehicle was on my bumper and stopping in a hurry was not recommended. Or when I was hurrying to work and had no time to stop. Or, oh no, did it really happen?  When I had left the camera by the door in the house.

Yesterday, however, just north of Birsay, I spied an owl. It's white shape was apparent on the top of a utility pole from some distance so I had time to slow down and pull over. I took one quick shot through the windshield, then got out and snapped two more before it decided to leave. 

Now, of course, I have a new goal.  To get a better photo of a Snowy Owl.