The Great Horned Owl & the Murder of Crows

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A walk in the woods brings out the Nature Spirit in me... it also helps me see them; it brings out the Medieval in me; connects me to my Cherokee ancestors. On my journeys I often come upon scenes that would make a great shot if I only had a camera. So I finally got one. I carry it in my knapsack so that it's always with me. So what if it has a broken view-finder? I just have to trust that the view will find the camera, which it usually does, and I'm awfully glad to have it. But there are 4 or 5 photo ops that I have missed that still haunt me. Three of them were, respectively; a ghost (a medicine man strolling through a mysterious mist along the ridge of the mountain, pouches and bags dangling around him, dog at his heels); 2 elves (Peter reclining on the immense walnut tree felled by lightening or age, his ever-present fiddle beside him, Anemone dancing about; and a beautiful, delicate wood nymph down by the river, full of curiosity, swiftly and deftly pursuing her hearts current desire - the male human dressed all in white, disappearing round a bend in the road up ahead. Yeah, I know, a lot of people are probably rolling their eyes, and certainly no camera would have captured those visions. But even without the 'supernatural phenomenon', the scenic beauty of each would have stood powerfully on its own. The last one I missed is actually two, and is what finally inspired me to get a camera. They were much more substantial, involving a Great Horned Owl & a Murder of Crows. It happened like this: One day as I walked down to the river, I heard the noise of some mightily p!ssed off crows. Now, I love it when I walk into the woods and a sentry-type crow calls out "Intruder Alert!" I love the way a crow further down will pick up the call and send it along, it just makes me smile. I wondered what had them so riled. And just as I finished wondering, I looked up. There, right over my head, on a low-hanging branch that spread across the lane, was the most handsome Great Horned I have ever seen. I fell in love instantly! And, oh boy, did I sweet talk him. Well, he had been trying to have a little snooze, so he was probably already a little ticked, what with the crows screaming obscenities at him overhead, and now, here was some silly human, crooning inanities at him from below. He lazily rolled his head out from under his wing and peered down at me, pinning me to the spot with his amazing, penetrating eyes. I thought my heart would burst with joy! Then, with an irritated twitch of his feathers and an attitude of great disdain, he spread those magnificent wings and took off into the sky, flying a few feet above the river, following its course faithfully... the crows screeching and dive-bombing him without mercy. I would have practically given my life for either of those 2 shots! Oh well, as Stephen Wright says (one of my favorite comedians), "You can't have everything, where would you put it?" Anybody else have some missed photo ops they still regret? Hearing them might even help to alleviate my pain.