I have always seemed to be the lucky at getting opportunities to photograph wildlife, but this one was the most amazing stroke of luck ever!
On our trip to the Grand Tetons during Thanksgiving week we hade our bucket list of animals we were wanting to photograph. Bears we knew were unlikely in winter, and wolves are really hard to find, but we did great on what was attainable, with two exceptions by our last day.
We still needed an American Pine Marten, and any kind of owls were also missing from our camera cards.
We drove around all day focused on finding them and had fully resigned to the fact we would not get any.
We went back to the condo to start packing to be ready to leave in the morning, and out back we heard a magpie squawking loudly. In a tree above our deck was a Great Horned Owl! Jackpot! We went around the condo and walked back down to photograph this beautiful owl in perfect light and in full view.
As we were photographing him we noticed he was quite distracted by something near the deck to the the condo.
We were already in shock that we could get an owl picture behind the condo when up from under the deck a Pine Marten poked his head up out of a hole in the snow! How could this even be real???
He ducked back down and then emerged again, this time coming all the way out of his hole.
He never looked back, and climbed out, and moved away from the hole as the owl watched him closely.
I was looking at the owl watching him, so afraid for him, thinking he was so distracted watching us that he was not aware of the owl just behind him in the tree. Then he climbed up on the deck seemingly oblivious to the wary eyes on him.
He sat for a minute and then hopped over to the base of the tree with the owl in it, and started climbing it, sniffing around, and exploring his way up the tree.
Meanwhile the owl held in place watching closely, and then suddenly flew off of his branch toward our direction, as the Pine Marten neared the very branch he was perched on.
As the owl flew away as the stoat was approaching, I have to believe the Pine Marten was going after the owl, and not the other way around!
As he got onto the branch sniffing around where the owl was perched, he was definitely interested in the scent.
The best part of this story is that we worked so very hard to fully cover the area, and to not find these guys until we were back at the condo is simply mind blowing to see even one of these, but both at the same time in the same tree. Do the math on these odds huh?? Unforgettable!
That is amazing. What a great surprise that was.
Awesome photos, awesome experience!