Crawdad Castles

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After hearing the first of frogs this year a couple of days ago, last night 3 owls flew across the road in front of me and today we have new crawdad castles popping up in the yard. The critters say that spring is just around the corner. 

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Screech Owl on Spring Creek Trail

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Today as I was walking along the Spring Creek Trail near the Fischer Natural Area in Fort Collins, when I spotted a flicker pecking on a tree and hopping in and out of a hollow that it seemed to have claimed for itself.

A woman that I met along the way asked about what I was taking pics of, and then asked if I had ever seen the screech owl that lives on Spring Creek Trail. I told her that I had not, and she proceeded to give me instructions on how to find this owl, which she called Penelope.

Above is a short video of the owl in the tree.

The first time that I headed over to her tree, she was nowhere to be seen, but a few minutes later I was still in the area and I heard a walker asking her partner if she could see the owl. I headed back over, and there she was.

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This is what the owl's tree looks like from Spring Creek Trail.

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