Absolutely, said we three and we grabbed our shoes and huffed (Well, just me, really.) up the hill. There it was. Hanging out, causing a ruckus amongst the smaller birds, pretty as you please.
Click for a larger picture.
A Great Horned Owl. For more information, and sounds, go here.It was dusk and getting dark, so these pictures are heavily edited to bring up the values. Kind of made me wish I'd had my big flash on there.
Pretty! Reminded Eric and I of the time when we had the gang working on building my raised beds (When I was 8 months pregnant with Caitlin.) and we were buzzed by an owl, flying low over our heads, at dusk, while the moon rose. It was utterly silent as it flew, you could just barely hear the sounds of the feathers ruffling in the wind of its passage. Owls rock! I've also found owl pellets in my lawn, so while I know that they've been around, I've never caught them in the act. Don't know how they feel about the loss of my really big trees, but it's nice to know that they're still in the neighborhood. Maybe this is why my mouse population is as low as it seems to be this year?
By the way, we were watching Planet Earth, the additional present we got Caitlin for her birthday. It is utterly awesome. You should get it/rent it/borrow it. It is beautifully filmed. Of course, we did have to explain about the Circle of Life and how wolves have to eat, too, as well as sharks. Sucks to be prey in a nature film!
4 comments:
Of course watching Planet Earth made me tell the Hatchet that she shouldn't complain so much about being pregnant.
After all, we just found out that male penguins need to sit in -70 degree weather, without food and in absolute darkness for FOUR MONTHS with an egg on their feet.
For some odd reason this didn't seem to help much. Oh well, at least she didn't bite me.
Hatchet considers devouring husband.
Wow! I love owls. Actually, any birds, particularly the ones rarely seen. Bob & I saw two water birds at Wash Park a couple of weeks ago. One about 4 ft. tall, the other half that size. I think the big one was a Great White Heron--according to my bird book--and I'm still not sure about the smaller white one. It looked like a juvenile something--brain going dead, bird book not here. Anyway, we saw the big one catch & eat a fish. I was thrilled. Haven't seen an owl in years & years. Fantastic pix, too.
I went on line to look for pix of the bigger bird I saw. Can't find any. The closest was the Great Egret, but the one I saw had a gray inverted triangular shape on its chest. Swear to God, can't find anything with that. Any suggestions?
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