Exotic Suwanee, Georgia

I've got two and a half weeks until I board an eight-seater plane and head to San Salvador, but my lovely hometown has given me several reasons to break out the camera to capture images of wildlife!

First, look "hooo" stopped by last week! Seemingly unfazed by our 85 lbs Bernese Mountain Dog, this is a Barred Owl landed on our back fence and seemed to study us at the same time we were studying him. Check out this website:http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Strix&species=varia He was making the "Scream" sound (which is more like a wheezy squeak), but we hear many variations on the call. What does the "Typical Call" sound like to you? Bird lovers like to think the call sounds like "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?"

He stopped by again the next day. These guys are causing big problems in the Pacific Northwest because they're much more aggressive than the smaller spotted owl--check out "A new wrinkle" at the bottom of this site: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0722_040722_tvspottedowl.html

This little guy knocked on our door last weekend. He is a Green Tree Frog. We hear them singing all the time, but this is the first time we've actually seen one. This is what they sound like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fWjKQaPc0c

Roman (my unofficial blog mascot) found some exotic wildlife of his own at Suwanee Town Center Park. This unusual specimen of the bipedal smoothie variety frightened my four-legged best friend, so Roman proceeded to tell the fruity monster how he felt.

COMING UP: I'm headed down to Tybee Island tomorrow for a prep session for my Bahamas class. We're going to spend Saturday on an undeveloped barrier island--check back Monday for more info!