Had you found this two months earlier, there would have been a good likelihood that sitting against a tree trunk to watch quietly for awhile you would have seen a pair of juveniles workikng their way along in the branches of the surrounding trees at just about the same height...they can be almost friendly in their curiosity and explorations at that point in their development... and quite vocal as the evening falls....
I hear them a lot, but I have never seen one before this.
This was at about 9am and I was driving down a small road that leads to a pond. The owl was sitting (sleeping?) on the ground to the right of the road. As I passed by, it flew right across the 'bow' of my car and landed on that branch just off the left side of the road. I got out, snapped that one image and it was gone before I could even take a step closer.
BIG bird. REALLY big bird.
