Description

It’s best to leave a fallen nestling on the ground, we’ve heard, unless it’s in imminent danger. And although we’ve never witnessed the actual act, some avian parents apparently can get offspring back into the nest.

The old farmstead trees were thick with owls. They fed on the mice, which were thick everywhere. So did the outdoor cats. And the coyotes, who fed on all of the above that they could ambush.

This owlet might have had protection. Perhaps it was its proximity to the house. When next sighted, the downy owlet was again impassively camouflaged on a tree branch and waiting for meal deliveries.

Clearly based on a photographic original, this image has nothing of the photo-realistic remaining. It is a painterly, impressionistic treatment. Note: no canned digital filters, ever.