T Stands for Another Owl Hunt and Second on the Second

    Hi everyone. Happy February 2  which is not only the Second the Second (over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog) but is also Groundhog Day here in the US. I don't think it matters whether Mr. Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow or not because it seems like the answers are the same. Six more weeks of winter or spring is just around the corner. Well how much time does  "just around the corner" actually mean? 

  This post today is not only my Second on the Second link up but is also my T day link up. Hello to everyone who stops by Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog with their drink related post.

  Last Thursday I met up with my friend Deb, and we went on a snowy owl hunt. This is the second time we've gone this winter, and sadly, once again we did not see any snowy owls. 😩 However, we did have a super birding day. We headed down to Plum Island State Reserve in Newbury, Massachusetts. They had tons of snow there from the big storm that hit earlier that week, plus it was quite cold,  but a large portion of the road and most of  the pull offs were plowed. And luckily it wasn't very crowded,  so we could stop just about anywhere, even on the road. Plus the few cars that were there seemed to be mostly birders anyhow. 

  Although we didn't see any owls, we did see a couple of Cooper's Hawks.

  Plus we saw lots of robins, cardinals, blue jays, sparrows and even a small flock of cedar waxwings.

    On our way out Deb spotted a giant sized bird out on the frozen marsh. From the car it looked the size of a wild turkey. She pulled over and stopped. I hopped out of the car, and then the bird took off.  We weren't very close to it because the marsh is really large there, so I think me hopping out of the car had nothing to do with the bird flying. I did manage to get one OK photo of the bird in flight because it flew in our direction and that helped me identify what it was.

    Definitely a bald eagle, and I believe it's a  juvenile. Later we saw an adult bald eagle but I couldn't get a photo of that bird. We decided we definitely need to go back and explore the Plum Island park once the snow melts and it warms up.

    When we left we drove back to Salisbury Beach State Reservation since it is hardly any distance away (like 10 minutes of driving and even in the right direction towards home) just to double check there were no owls there. No owls, but the Northern Harrier that lives there was sitting nearer to the road (than last time) and posing for a photo.

   Before we left that morning we made mugs of hot cocoa at Deb's house. That was a super idea (thanks Deb) and so here is my cocoa that I drank through our time out. It's my ticket to T this week.

    Because it is also Second on the Second today, I need to repost something, so I'm going back to 2015 and 2014. In 2014 I saw my first snowy owls (I saw 2 that day). Here's a few photos of one of those owls from that day.

    Then in 2015 I went back but didn't see a snowy owl, but I made a daily journal page about that. Here's the link to that page and post: Snowy Owl Quest.

  The last time I saw a snowy owl was in January of 2022. Here's a photo from that day: Snowy Owls and Other Birds, and here's the owl I saw then.

  Deb is skipping out of town for a few days this week, but when she returns we're planning on another owl hunt. She has never seen any kind of wild owl, and that's the goal this winter, elusive as it might be. 

  I hope the new month is going well for you. Have a happy T day and week ahead.