People I meet at our local (private) beach have been telling me for weeks that they are seeing a Snowy Owl there…in the marsh where Back Creek meets the Mousam River behind the dunes. I have been there 30 times tlooking…but yesterday morning, while out testing a new camera, there it was, sitting in the very tip-top of a tall pine just at the land-side edge of the marsh. This Digiscoped image makes the bird look shy…but it was anything but…it sat there for an hour while I took, oh, maybe, 500 exposures with 3 cameras…and it was still there an hour later when I brought my wife back to the beach on the chance of her seeing it. During that time it fought off two attacks by crows…so it was firmly perched. I went back in late afternoon to see if I could see it fly…but it was, by then, no where to be seen.

ZEISS DiaScope 65FL. 15-56x Vario eyepiece. Digidapter for ZEISS. Canon SD320HS camera. ISO 400 @ 1/640th. This is totally pushing the limits of what can be done photographically. Doing the math, it was shot at over 5500mm equivalent field of view at an effective aperture of f16. Processed in Snapseed and Photo Editor by dev.macgyver on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.

And for the Sunday Though: The camera I was testing is a new purchase, bought in anticipation of my first ever, and quite possibly once-in-a-lifetime, trip to Africa. Odd how that works. My wife and I were talking about things that are on my bucket-list…things I would like to do in my remaining time on the planet. Going to Africa is high on that list, but I had pretty much resigned myself to Africa never happening. Only a number of days later I found out that I will be “required” to go on a birding safari to Kenya in June as part of my work for ZEISS. Required. Paid to do so. Africa!

It is like the Snowy Owl in many ways. I went looking for it at the beach often since hearing it was hanging out there…and found it when I was not looking for it at all. In fact I had finished my testing and was literally had the door of the car open to depart when I spotted the Owl in the tree on one last sweep.

How can I feel anything but blessed! How can I not be aware that there is someone, someone in charge, who cares…who loves me, and who delights in giving unexpected (and totally undeserved) gifts? The Owl is a gift…a grace…a blessing. The trip to Africa is…oh just whow!!…such a gift.

And the thing about gifts is that they do, indeed, keep on giving. I get to share the Snowy Owl with all of you. That increases the blessing. And, I have found over the last few days, the absolute best thing about the Africa trip is that I was given the privilege of inviting 12 others…of being the intermediate agent in bestowing the gift of an all-expenses-paid birding safari in Kenya…on 12 other people! How totally amazing is that? All I can say is Thank you times twelve, Thank you to the twelfth power! And then, I am going to get to share the experience with those 12 people. Better and better. Bester and bestest and bestalicious times 12 to the 12th power and onward toward infinity!

And, to top it all off, I get the perfect justification to buy another new camera! (And for this photo-geek that is not a minor blessing in its own right!)

Thank you God. Happy Sunday.