This week, I was fooled by an A.L.T (Animal Like Thing). It’s pretty common while out watching birds or wildlife. Those pesky distant bushes that look like an antelope, the upturned branch that looks exactly like a perched bird, the big rock that fooled you into thinking it was a rhino.
While I was out with my dogs earlier in the week, I stopped dead in my tracks, absolutely convinced there was an owl perched on a fallen tree in the back forest. I quickly took the dogs in and grabbed my camera and raced back outside, eagerly zoomed in and then saw – a broken branch sticking up from the dead tree. And here I was excitedly thinking I was finally seeing the great horned owl after hearing it call from the depths of my yard for years. I had a brief moment of disappointment and then headed back inside to tend to the pups.
There are a few fallen trees in the forest behind my home that I know look like animals, but this was one that hadn’t caught my eye before. Once all the snow is gone, I might need to go flag it with something so I don’t get fooled by that one again.
Since I am still without even seeing the great horned owl, let alone capturing an image of it, I instead have a photo of the barred owl in the yard. We’ve seen brief glimpses of an owl flying near the house recently, likely the barred as it seems quite comfortable hanging around near the house.
