By A Hair!

I was a tad to slow! The White-headed Woodpecker had been frozen on the perch for nearly twenty minutes. All the feeders were empty and the Mountain Chickadees could be heard but not seen. There’s a predator on the prowl and all the critters were telling me that. Two days before, I’d seen a small flash chase a bird into tree three, but I didn’t see who it was. It was small and rusty colored so thought our No. Pygmy Owl was back. So with all the critters communicating a predator was around, I was looking for the owl. Smaller than a dollar bill, they can be very hard to find in the trees. So yesterday with all the signs, I was just turning away from looking at tree three for the owl when it dashed in and landed. It wasn’t a owl though but rather a small, male Sharpie! It was looking around so I grabbed my D4s / 300PF (left out just for this reason) and walked over to the door. But by the time I got there, the Sharpie had flown down the alley on the prowl. Missed it by a hair. The birds were still frozen so I knew it was around so I kept doing a 360 around the house looking for it but alas, never could. This is why I have my gear always at the ready, it’s how I got the shot of this big Sharpie female earlier this year. You gotta keep at it cause even those times you get the photo, it’s often by a hair!

I was just about to click Publish on this post when I saw the Sharpie shoot down the alley … the chase is on … again!