Yesterday, on the day after Thanksgiving here in the U.S., Natalie and I took to the road for some birding at the Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuge for the Columbian White Tailed Deer here in Washington state, and one of the highlights was a close encounter with a Short-eared Owl. The shot above was taken with a Canon 20D at a distance of about 20 feet, using an image stabilized 70-300 zoom lens. We saw 47 species on an oddly sunny day that was so warm that dragonflies were out and flying.