Getting gloves on and anything else ready before opening the gate.
Jenn works at a wildlife rehab center, and kindly invited some friends, including me, to watch as she released two barn owls into the wild -- well, the trees in a little canyon on the edge of a cattle ranch -- on the eastern border of Fremont.
The owls had been raised at the rehab center since they were owlets.
Getting gloves on and anything else ready before opening the gate.
And away goes the the first owl.
Out comes the second owl. Both bird and woman have such lovely colors in the
sun.
Owl number two flies straight up into a tree. There it sits, up and to the right of center.
A kestrel (first photo) and a yellow-billed magpie (tiny black speck in middle of second photo) are roused by the ruckus. The kestrel yelled and squealed at the barn owl once it landed in the tree. The magpie (one of several) seemed nonplussed, but moved from the owl's copse across the road to the cow field.
Looking for the first bird, who landed back in this cluster of trees. It wasn't spotted, and the rehabilitators hoped it wasn't injured during its first landing.