O is for Owl

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“What was that?”   shouts came from upstairs.  

Seated at the kitchen table, I simultaneously turned to look towards the sound of the loud crash just outside.

“Oh my gosh!  Come look!’’

There sprawled across the porch was a huge barred owl.  He stayed perfectly still, his head turned, and I wondered if he was alive.   My daughter and I stared at him in delight and amazement for a while, chattering back and forth about what we should do.

“Can I go out and pet him?”

“NO! Absolutely not!  He could claw your eyes out.”

“What are we going to do?  We can’t just leave him.  I’d love to have a pet owl.” 

“I don’t know yet, what we’ll do.  I have to think.  He sure is beautiful; isn’t he?”

We were all getting ready to leave for church, but I knew that if this poor visitor didn’t take off on his own soon, I’d have to find a solution.  He still hadn’t moved, and we finally thought to take a photo.  We snapped and moved closer to the door to get a better shot. 

As I slowly moved to a different place to get a photo at a different angle, he took off, just fine.  There were a group of crows circling above that started to banter and badger him as he flew to a tall evergreen tree beside my neighbor’s house.  They had apparently been the cause of his earlier fall.  He was trying to wait long enough for them to get out of his way to fly off.

Later we found out from our neighbors that they had been seeing for a couple of weeks in the tree, which is apparently his new home.  As the weather has warmed, we hear him and his friends outside as dusk comes on and throughout the night, sometimes right outside our bedroom window.  We love having our own owl about, but wonder if we will soon sleep through his night calls or tire of them. 

Darla Sue Dollman at Compassion, Kindness, and Love  and Blessed Little Creatures has some fabulous wildlife posts.  I have so enjoyed my visits to her blog and learned a great deal in the process.  Check it out.  You won’t be disappointed.

 

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