My wife and I celebrated Valentine's Day and our 10th anniversary late, because we have to find a sitter for Grandma, who lives with us.
So, yesterday we spent a wonderful day at Gray Lodge Wildlife Area down the hill from us in the Sacramento River Valley. We saw lots of American coots, which are always fun; and a huge number of snow geese that spend the winter here. I saw a couple of black-necked stilts, birds I've never seen before. Oh, and several beautiful Northern Shovelers, both males and females.

After a beautiful sunset, I told my wife, "It's owl time now - watch carefully." Sure enough, we sighted a great horned owl and we were able to watch him through binoculars for several minutes before he flew away. We had brief views of three other owls in our headlights as we drove home, but weren't able to identify them specifically.

My photos didn't come out as well as these (click) or these or these (click).