This was down at Hall's Road this morning (in Whitby). A few of us had been watching the owl for awhile, and then my husband gave our 5yr old son some birdseed with peanuts in it to feed the little birds with... then a couple of squirrels came by, quite interested in the mix my son was dishing out, and all of a sudden, the owl's eyes popped open! The owl tracked the squirrels with his eyes for quite awhile, and there were a few times we were thinking he might swoop down and eat him! We did warn my little guy that this might happen, and that if it did, he should not be frightened (I was really afraid it would scare the heck out of him to see that, and give him nightmares!), but the owl just sat and watched. The squirrel even made it right up the tree the owl was perched on, and the owl glared at him, but just wasn't hungry enough to make a lunch out of him. Once the squirrel noticed the owl, boy did he hightail it out of there in a huge hurry!
Glad you guys like the photo! I did a few frames of this - one has the owl in the background out of focus, but this one was just far more compelling!