Spook, Root Beer and One Tick

What a weekend!  After five months of battling snow, wind, heavy rain, wet feet and clothes, goose chases after phantom hoots that turned out to be a grouse and other challenges we finally, finally caught up with a Great Gray owl.  In fact, we found both a parent and its owlet.  We only had to travel about 260 miles east to a spot about half way in between Meecham and LaGrande to narrow the searching field.  We took the Spring Creek "road" to another numbered "road" which was little more than a dirt lane bouncing our way over dips, doodles and mud holes to find the five trees out of the thousands and thousands that we'd passed in the Wallowa Whitman National Forest.  We didn't see them the first day and my legs were wobbly the second day from climbing up and down a shallow draw several times over trying to find  all the nesting platforms.  We found two derelict ones-two at the Spook nesting site and one in tact at the Root Beer site-but couldn't find hide nor feather of the one at Spook that was supposedly housing a baby. We retreated to  LaGrande where I found a tick on Bobbie's head which she smashed on the table with her knife and then brushed it on the floor at Mt. Emily's Ale House.  The server looked mildly on as all I said was, "Tick."  She seemed to get it right away.  Then I got to battle with an annoying case of diarrhea the next morning which made me fast track it behind a few of those thousands of trees I mentioned above.  Nothing like the feel of mountain air on one's nether regions while maintaining a thigh shaking pose in the undergrowth.  All trials were soon forgotten as we made one more trip down the draw where Bobbie spotted the baby within 30 minutes.  Look carefully in the middle of the lower photo and you can see him.  Within seconds she spotted the parent owl a few trees to the left which you can see if you look in the middle of the upper photo.  We did silent high fives and screamed without making sounds for awhile and then settled in to watch the birds for about an hour and a half.  We heard the parent make a few comforting hoots to her baby and even found owl feathers.  We sneaked in as close as we dared so as not disturb them.  They were amazingly tolerant allowing us to set up photo bases in their area.  We did just about everything except climb the trees and pet them.  What magnificent creatures!  We paid them a respectful farewell and spent the rest of the day seeing other wildlife and stunning landscapes in the Todd Marsh Wildlife Refuge.  What a way to spend a vacation weekend.