I want to share my time with a unique, Barred Owl.  I and my fellow photography-friends of mine call him Tito.  I cannot believe in the many years I have been photographing, this is the first year that I saw an owl so many times I cannot keep track of the count!  Each time I was honored to see him, I thanked God for this precious moment and I thanked Tito. Anytime I have an encounter with nature or wildlife, I feel it is an honor and gift.

I’ve learned a lot about Barred Owls because of Tito. First, he is a crazy owl! He made himself well known in the area and flew all over the place and into people! Sometimes we thought he was careless and that worried us, but then at times, we would hear his parents calling for him. One of my friends said, “He needs to lay off the gin…” LOL

They sleep a lot during the day and hunt at night. The photos below are of the young barred owl, Tito. We watched him hunt, fly, and sleep…. Did I say sleep? A lot of sleeping! LOL One day my friend caught Tito on video eating a snake “like eating a spaghetti noodle”!

I had the luxury of visiting Tito all by myself on a few occasions. These encounters were as I was leaving to go back home and did not have my cell phone on me or it was during work hours when my birding friends were all working. I would stop, take a few pictures and watch him for a few minutes before leaving. 

I hope to see Tito again soon.  I hope and pray he will be safe. 

Photo Credit: The photo of me with Tito was taken by Joe Bloemer