This evening we went for a ride toward Almira (15 miles South). About 4
miles from town, at a small pond we saw 4 Greater Yellow legs and one
Spotted Sandpiper fly in and start feeding. The pond is right next to
the road and we were able to get within 30 feet of them. They were not
bothered by our presence. We watched them for about 15 minutes and
started on down the road and about 8 miles out we saw 10 Red-tailed
Hawks all within about 200-300 yards of each other. There were 3 on one
pole, 3 on another pole, 2 on another and 2 on another and 2 on separate
poles! WOW!

About 10 miles out we sat and watched the wheat farmers harvesting the
grain in the distance while the sun was starting to set. It was all we
could do to restrain ourselves from getting mushy, so we decided to head
back home. :-) We came back about 1/2 mile and spotted 4 Short-eared
Owls. I pulled into a side road and said to Sandy "I can never get close
enough for some real good pictures". Guess what---one of them flew
straight at the car no more then 5 feet above it! We got out of the car
and I got the camera ready and for the next 20 minutes they would fly
back and forth right over the top of us following us with their head as
they passed over no more then 10 to 15 feet in the air. It was awesome!
I took 15 pictures and hopefully some of them will turn out.

You never know what will happen when you go for a short evening ride.

Jerry and Sandy Converse
Grand Coulee, WA