A wild morning in the neighborhood

©2013 Lydia Hinshaw

Barred owl, breaking curfew

Noisy hawk sounding off

Dolphin attacking breakfast

 ORMOND BEACH, FL -- A wildlife photo expedition was on the agenda for Thursday, but it turned out we didn't really have to go anywhere.
 I stepped out my front door to check on the weather and found a barred owl staring at me from a perch on my next-door neighbors' tree.  I've known for some time that owls live around here.  I've heard them at night and one early morning, before dawn, I spotted one in a tree just around the corner.
 But never before have I seen one in broad daylight.
 A few minutes after the owl departed, I was in my bedroom at the back of the house when I heard a hawk who sounded like he was right outside the window.
 Out the back door this time, and I finally spotted the noisemaker, 30-feet up in a currently leafless hickory tree.
 Photo expedition?  I had several good pictures and I hadn't made it out of my yard yet.
 Nevertheless, we hit a couple of nearby riverfront parks, and encountered a dolphin who is probably the same loner we've watched two or three times this past week.  I missed the moment when he rolled on his side with his grinning face out of the water, but I caught a long-distance splash-shot as he blitzed some unlucky fish at the end of somebody's dock.
 Now if I could just get the loons to come closer, and the green heron to move out of the shadows.