Rainy but (very) Happy

In the morning, I drove to Steveston to buy some groceries, and of course, I couldn't be there and not check out the wildlife along the waterfront.

Sky-watch of today.

A very shy pair of Mallards.

The strangest position I seen a Great Blue Heron in. Is it drying its feathers?

Cherry blossoms are now in full flowering mode. Soon all of it will be sakura fubuki (i.e. cherry blossom snowfall).

When I returned home, it started to drizzle a bit and then stopped. So I decided to quickly go out and bike along the dyke before the harder rainfall comes.

As usual, Muskrat is out feeding again before the rain comes.

And guess what!? I saw the Great Horned Owl again. This time, it was on the tree closer to me (but facing the other side). A new birding friend and I saw it, and we were quite excited to see it so clearly. What a beauty!

As you can see, they blend-in quite well to their surroundings.

Great Horned Owls are widely distributed across North America as well as parts of Central and South America. This raptor is considered one of the top avian predators in North America - taking large prey including other owls.

Afterwards, the rain really started to come down hard. So I decided to head home. Before then, I saw this dead bird's leg on the ground. Being the curious person that I am, I poked at it (with a stick), and this beetle sudden came out of hiding!

I have no idea what kind of Ground Beetle this is, so I submitted to BugGuide hoping to get an identification. Nevertheless, it's an awesome-looking bug.

Even though rain was coming down when I was biking home, I was (very) happy inside to see all the wildlife that I saw today!
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