Today we continued our exploring of the SZB. And I’m already spoiling the special treat of the fourth Life Owl of the trip with my two primary photos, so I did indeed see ANOTHER Life Owl, the bizarro Northern Hawk Owl! And we were super fortunate to see TWO!!

But, first things first.

We started out in the SZB in search of the Great Gray Owl. Without success. Chances are slim, given their numbers this year, but we’re going to try anyway.

On our way to find the Sharp-tailed Grouse, we came upon a handful of Ruffed Grouse! And we even got to see a gray one and a reddish one, somewhat side by side on a branch. We ALSO located the Sharp-tailed Grouse, which was on our list to see. Life Bird! Grouses are easily the cutest chicken-looking things ever. And the Sharp-tailed has super furry legs that are adorable.

And now seems like a good time to confess that the truly good close-up (or even close-upish) photos of birds that I’m sharing are courtesy of our guide using my phone camera to take photos with his Swarovski scope. My pocket digital camera just can’t cut it with the birds we’re seeing at this distance AND with this low light. Full confession. If you see any photo and think, “DANG! That’s a great photo!” in any way, shape, or form, it’s not me. At least, not until the second Northern Hawk Owl. When I finally figured out how to do it on my own.

Undid the Macro setting on my phone camera, and ta-da!

Fortunately for us, and even MORE fortunately for one in our group, we were able to find a Pileated Woodpecker. Got decent looks at it before it flew off. And for that one in our group, she got a Life Bird. Always love seeing them!

Next up, we headed to a burned forest area to find some woodpeckers. And we found the two on our list! The Black-backed Woodpecker and the American Three-toed Woodpecker.

We saw a female and then a male Black-backed Woodpecker. The male has this totally random and bright yellow line on his head!

For the Three-toed (whose toes we sadly never saw), we heard it drumming a bit away. And I found her! It was not easy to find a black and white bird through all those burned Birch trees with snow all around, but I found her. And I’m quite upset I got no decent photos of her, because she was ADORBS.

And she gave us such good looks at her. Just hanging out atop a Birch tree trunk that looked like it snapped the top off of it. The scope even let us see her blinking her eyes and she looked about on all sides inbetween the fierce wood pecking that was her business of the day.

We were so successful with the three birds on our list that it was time to try Owling. There was pretty high confidence we’d see a Hawk Owl in the area. They’d been reported in the same place our guide saw them last year. And another one was even reported in an area closeby.

And we saw BOTH!!!

The first was atop a tree that was quite close to the road. Our guide said that you’d more often see them much further away. Our luck was still strong!

We got to watch the Hawk Owl and even see it in the scope. Now, this Owl is truly bizarre. To me, it looks like about five different birds all put together as far as coloring and patterns and whatnot. Plus it has a Muppet face. I had a hard time not cracking up every time I saw it in the scope.

It flew off at one point but only down a bit and into another tree along the road. We drove up to get a closer look, and I got some fun photos from almost underneath it while it was looking down. That’s from my digital camera. Through a tinted car window from the backseat row. They are decent photos because we were THAT CLOSE.

Next stop was the original location our guide knew. And there was Hawk Owl #2! This one was further away, but the light was a bit better on it. And what’s hilarious is that it’s actually sitting on top of the tippy top of the tree, but the tippy top is bent over from the weight of it. In the wind, it looked like it was on a swing seat!

After a brief stop at the Welcome Center again, we headed to a couple well known feeders. And saw even more Black-capped Chickadees and even a Brown Creeper. At the next feeder, we got to see more familiar faces. Like those Black-cappeds, White-breasted (which had an odd white stripe on its head?) and Red-breasted Nuthatches, another cutey American Red Squirrel (eating out of a bird bath), and a Blue Jay (which all the Californians cooed over).

It was nearing the end of the day, and our guide really was running low on checklist items. Earlier in the day somehow, the topic of Porcupines came up. And I, OF COURSE, was all giddy at the thought of seeing one. So he took us to a place where he’d seen one the week prior (and I think other times, as well), AND WE FOUND ONE!

It looked like a formidable nest pretty high up in a tree, and he said, “I think that’s a Porcupine.” And once he saw it closer up, he confirmed it! Ok, so I had NO IDEA they climbed trees.

They CLIMB TREES!!

It was unfortunately for us pretty obstructed by a great many tree branches. But upon seeing it in the scope and even through binoculars, you could see his quills. Even see his arms moving to grasp the tree he was happily munching away on. I caught glimpses of his head and hands! Near the end of our time with him, you could make out his hands and feet grasping the insanely thin tree trunk in front of him.

Did I squeal? Yes. I SQUEALED.

I want to see ohsomanymore North American Porcupines now!!

We were on our way to our last search for the Great Gray Owl. We gathered some unsolicited advice from a local driving home, so we headed to the area she told us about. On our search, a Ruffed Grouse appeared at the side of the road in front of us. We stopped to watch. And she eventually made her way to cross the whole wide road while we watched.

It is odd (?), but this is the second of three Ruffed Grouses I’ve seen that have crossed the road ahead of a car I was in. Coincidence?

So in the end? Life Owl! And TWO of them!! Plus a handful of other sweet Life Birds.

Did we find the Great Gray? Nope. Will we try again tomorrow? Probably. Not holding my breath. Still keeping my eyes open for a Pine Marten. And will likely be happy to settle for another Life Grouse…