Another busy day, but this one was cold and wet, with wind and a lot of rain. I was under the mistaken impression that the Saint Louis Photography Club was hosting another Owl Prowl tonight with the one and only Mark Glenshaw, but I was somehow confusing today with tomorrow, the 31st of March.
So I headed for the waterway in front of the Muny to see what might be lurking there and found 3 pairs of wood ducks. Prior to today I was suspecting that the pair of wood ducks I stumbled across every so often was the same pair, and there was a shortage of the creatures in the park. Now I know better. I got a few photos from a distance and headed towards the boathouse to search the waters there for bigger birds (yesterday I caught 2 great egrets and one great blue heron in addition to a snog and a cardinal (I have quit paying attention to the cardinals, starlings, sparrows and red winged blackbirds).
It was then that I spied the unmistakable form of the Owl Man, A.K.A. Mark Glenshaw in the distance. He didn’t hear my shout, but he did receive my text, so I joined him on the night’s expedition and we almost immediately caught sight of Charles. When I say we, I mean, of course, Mark, as he is much better at this sort of thing than I. The sun had popped out and, while it had not yet dried up all the rain, thus enabling the spider to climb the spout again, it did give us some very good light for photographs. We stood on the path by the permanent puddle and watched Charles groom, stretch and vocalize (that’s “hoot” to all y’all folks out there).
A couple driving past stopped to take a look and as we stood and talked, Charles took off with a leisurely swoop from his perch through the woods and out towards Government drive. We didn’t waste time either, but took off to find him again. When we did, we watched for a while before I heard the call of home.
The Boat house looked inviting as I walked past, so I stopped in for a few photos and related a paragraph to Paige. Something to do with Mark Twain.
Charles, waking up from his day’s slumbers and getting ready to find someone to eat.