Just days before I had been immersed in rolling hills and rocky canyons. Drinking from mountainous streams and embracing mother nature’s wild onslaught of wind and rain. Foxes had been my goal and I had left that trip with memory card after memory card full of fun images, memories that would last a lifetime and experiences that I was still thinking about day in and day out. Now, just a few days later, I stood with camera in hand photographing a beautiful Western Screech Owl in quite a different setting. Cars honked as they drove by, a train sounded in the distance and somewhere down the road somebody yelled happy greetings to their neighbor across the street. The setting couldn’t be more different, but wildlife is wildlife and they live in the wildest mountains as well as in the wildest neighborhoods and cities. 

My family and I had enjoyed a peaceful day together and were on our way to visit grandma and grandpa when a friend had messaged. She excitedly told me about a Screech Owl not far from home and so we took a detour, the “scenic route” as my dad would have called it. Pulling up to this stranger's house, my friend was already there in the front yard. I got out of the car, camera in hand and looked up into the tree and there was indeed a beautiful little Owl perched among the branches. The water-bottle sized bird didn’t pay any attention to us, our cameras, or the hectic goings on all around us. The Owl completely ignored the humans below as we photographed it. The stranger, in whose yard the Owl so wonderfully graced with its presence, was just as excited to see the little bird as we were. 

Wildlife is truly amazing. They go about living their lives, surviving day to day. In the meantime we long to see these animals, to just catch a glimpse of an Owl here, or a Fox there. Friendships are strengthened and connections made, all because of these little creatures that move all around us in the busiest cities and in the wildest mountains.