It was mid morning when we encountered the Great Gray Owl near Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone. He moved a couple of times while we watched him. This was by far the best view of him because it was unobstructed and the background was subdued. He faced the bright sun and never fully opened his eyes when he did face the sun. I don’t know if he was considering moving to his daytime roost because he was sleepy or if he was just squinting in the sunlight. The entire hour or so we watched him, including when he moved from a perch to the ground to two other perches, he had a long piece of grass or straw that appeared to be stuck either at the edge of his beak or embedded in the feathers next to his beak. It’s visible in this image if you look closely and even the shadow of it appears as a line on his breast feathers. I guess he had no feeling of its presence because he didn’t try to shake or scrape it off.