Guarding his barn

Yesterday, 19 February 2015, my daughter and I went NE of the city again to search for Snowy Owls. Recently, people have not been reporting many of these owls, though I was told that someone saw 18 of them on the one day. We were not so lucky, but my daughter did a great job of spotting two very distant ones - actually, three, if you include this wooden one that is guarding this rather nice old barn and adjacent, smaller one. She also spotted a Bald Eagle perched at the top of a very distant tree.

We always feel very awkward stopping the car and standing in the road, photographing a barn, when there is a house or houses nearby. There was also an old red barn across the road from these, partly hidden by trees, with a house on the property. We knew we wouldn't be able to take photos of that one, but we really liked the one in this photo. I pulled over and we got out and took a shot or two. We noticed a man down the road, walking towards us, talking on his cell phone. He said that he had seen us and thought he'd come and say "Hi". Said he lived there and that the farm and barn behind us were originally his Grandfather and Father's. He was looking after the house on the property for the owners for a few days, and told us we were welcome to wander round the farmyard and photograph the barn. Needless to say, that is exactly what we did. Greatly appreciated!

Bird-wise, the day was very slow, but we are always happy to explore and find new barns and anything else that we find interesting and/or beautiful. Though the sky is clear in this photo, the rest of the sky was one huge mass of rather spectacular clouds that just went on and on forever. Not the best light when it came to photography, but it looked beautiful.