Northern Pygmy Owl

 

Karma

We were birding in Cave Creek Canyon Arizona searching for a Northern Pygmy Owl when we came upon a seniors birding group looking for an Elegant Trogon.

They had stopped as a group and we passed on through only to come across the Trogon about fifty feet up the trail. We stopped dead in our tracks and slid in behind some brush. I motioned back to the group who slowly moved up to join us and eventually we were pushed to the rear.

One of the last ladies to move up said that I must have got some outstanding photos of the bird. However, in an effort not to flush the bird so that they all got a chance to observe the bird, I had not taken any shots. Nikon cameras, especially early digital models, had extremely noisy shutters compared to Canon.

No harm done, we enjoyed seeing the bird, and I was happy all the birders got to see their target bird. Eventually, we hiked back down the canyon to the trailhead, and although we seen a great variety of lifer birds, we did not find a Northern Pygmy Owl.

Ah, the karma part of the story. There, sitting in a tree, not 100 feet from our truck, right in the parking lot, was a beautiful Northern Pygmy Owl.

Karma