Waiting for Dusk ~ Eastern Screech Owl, copyright Susan A. Walton, S. A. Walton Studio, Hudson, Florida

An owl waits, puffed up for insulation, in a small maple in the chill of a late November evening, for an opportunity to snatch a meal. These maples grow in abundance in the southeast and often hold their leaves until heavy snow arrives. The coloring of the frosty leaves and tree offers a little refuge for a tiny predator that would prefer to be discrete. I chose an intensely colored sky, such as you might see just after a cold front clears the atmosphere, to make the otherwise camouflaged bird stand out a little.