On our backwoods patrol this morning, we found a very interesting and extremely unusual pile of what-we-know-not (see second image at left).

After wandering a few hundred yards more along a tributary of the beaver bog creek, we saw a large bird fly overhead. The bird landed on a high branch up ahead of us and, as we moved around a tree, we looked up and saw the bird: a very light-colored barred owl.

I was ready: 300mm lens loaded, “sport” pre-defined function mode set (high-speed shutter, auto-exposure), and with a quick switch from auto-focus to manual focus, I took a series of shots praying that I could get a steady, focused image.

Back to the weird pile of “peanuts”. Piled at the base of a dying tree containing numerous holes, these pellets could be somebody’s guano?