"Catching" a mountain lion on our trail camera is a special occurrence, catching 3 is amazing!  Can you spot them all in the first photo?  It was neat to follow their tracks in the snow. I've included another photo from March, too.

Special occasions usually call for some art work at the Ames house.  On this Valentine's Day, Andy practiced a "flat Andy and Rachel" in the living room.  Tiva felt left out!  Later, Andy put together our "flat couple" in the snow.  Someone else was out in the snow, too! Happy Valentine's Day!

For a while now, we've known that we live near a bobcat territory boundary.  We've set up our trail camera so that we get to view the scat, scent, and scratch process. What we didn't know is that coyotes would also be interested in that spot.  Or rather, perhaps they were interested in the scent left by our dog, Tiva, after she added it to the bobcat spot.  This week, we had a third visitor, who didn't scent but who left some mighty big tracks under our deck! Note the temperature on the trail camera.  We know one of the camera's sensors is a bit off, but it was certainly well below zero!

Wednesday started out quiet enough but soon we heard quite a commotion outside our house.  Dozens of Steller's jays were making quite a racket.  We knew the likely cause.  A great horned owl must be nearby.  Sure enough, we spotted a great horned owl "trying" to nap on this chilly day.  Below, you can see a video of the jays and some photos of the owl.  Notice how it puffed out its feathers to stay warm.  Luckily, the jays left after about 10 minutes and we got to watch the owl nap for the next 5 hours.