[SBB] Alum Rock Park today

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Hi All!
    I was walking up Penitencia Creek in Alum Rock Park this  afternoon 
looking for the dipper where I saw it last Friday (at the first  footbridge 
upstream from the parking lot).  After a quick look at the  two GREAT-HORNED OWLETS, 
I continued upstream and heard a sharp buzzy  singing across the creek and 
found a LAZULI BUNTING singing his heart out beside  the creek.  
    After some good close looks at a male HAIRY  WOODPECKER that flew into a 
nearby tree, a HOUSE WREN began its  serenade in the "tiled-up" sycamore just 
downstream of the second footbridge  after the parking lot.  (I'd seen a House 
Wren in that tree before, flying  in and out of a knothole.)
    The treat of the day came when I arrived at the  Sycamore Grove Picnic 
Area.  I got really excited when  two gentlemen who were staring up into the 
trees told me that a "baby owl  just flew down, grabbed a robin, and went back 
into the tree."    They said they hadn't seen the "baby owl" fly away yet and it 
was  somewhere in the top of the trees "in the middle."  After they left, I  
continued to look "in the middle," and eventually detected some movement  
overhead.  As I suspected, their "baby owl" turned out to be a NORTHERN  
PYGMY-OWL, and I got great looks at it as it made short work of it's afternoon  meal.  
The owl was quite little, and its barred tail was held out  askew to its body. 
 It glared down at me once and I could see its white  eyebrows, and when it 
turned its head, one of the black eye-spots on the  back of its neck could be 
seen.  
    I never did re-find Friday's American Dipper, but  no complaints here!
                    Kim  Blythe (making a little NOPO tick mark on the little 
life-list!)
                    Santa  Clara
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