Rare and hard to get shots

So today I had only a few hours to get out and take photos before the rain returned. It started a little slow, i hiked a new trail for about a mile without seeing anything. I turned around and headed back to the car. I was about 150 feet above the Rogue River, I came to a clear shot of the river and seen a Great Blue Heron standing at the edge of the river with a perfect reflection.

Then I headed to Well Creek trail head. It was quiet and low clouds were hanging to the top of the trees. I was surprised to see a Bald Eagle sitting in the to of a tree, I had never seen one on this trail before and I've hiked it almost weekly over the last 5 months. but there it was.

then I came across the smallest woodpecker we have here in the USA, The Downy Woodpecker. It's hard to get good shots of these little guys, they don't sit still. But I guess today was my day.

Then I ran into a heartbreaker, one of my favorite Tweety birds to photograph jumped onto the trail right in front of me. I started taking pictures and it started coming closer, that's when i noticed something was wrong with it. what I'm guessing is some sort of a tumor was on the right side of it's face. I kept sitting as it moved close. I had to stop when it got so close my camera couldn't focus due to it being to close.

After that I was getting close to the car and that's usually when there isn't much to shoot and I picked up my pace. Then i seen a little bird fly from a tree to my right and across the trail and land on a branch about 20 off the ground. it looks fat. I brought my camera up and focused... I could believe I what i was seeing. I had to up my ISO to get a good shotand i just started firing. then i started moving around to get a tree behind it. the damn thing wouldn't look at me, it was looking into the woods to my left. I tried moving to make noise I even made whistling noises (which isn't a good thing to do btw). I was almost standing under the tree before it finally looked my way. I got the photo I wanted so I moved off to let him do is thing. when I looked up the info said they are hard to find but that they are not skittish and hunt in the daylight. oh I'm talking about the Northern Pygmy owl.

they don't migrate so I should be able to find it again and get better shots of it. this is the first owl I have seen since I moved, except seeing the screech out family at my brother's house, they have lived there for years. Owls are one of my most favorite birds to photograph and this little guy just might be my new favorite of the owls.