Buntings & Owls - Feb. 26, 2011

I surprised a group of 11 Snow Buntings as I came around the corner and flushed them from an open patch of ground. Only the 2nd time in 14 years that I've seen these winter visitors to New England in the yard.

A bit if time poking around looking for Owls found 3 sitting out in the late afternoon light with this gray Screech Owl being the most obliging of the group. A number of trips past the Corliss Brothers tree through the afternoon and early evening did not find the red Screech in attendance. Time for nesting already?