Late Night Visitor

It was after dinner and we were all hanging out in the living room. Big Daddy and I were trying (notice I said trying) to watch Bones over the screams of obnoxious children. I thought I heard a noise, but immediately shrugged it off as something on the TV, then Monkey Man said, "Did you hear that Mom? It sounds like an owl!" We listened for a minute and we both heard it, so he and I went out back to investigate. Sure enough, there was a big, beautiful Great-Horned Owl on our chimney. We sat out on the trampoline and watched its silhouette and listened to its call. On occasion I heard another in the distance, so this may have been the same pair that landed on our chimney a couple of years ago. The owl continued to hang out, so I slowly walked across the yard and went inside to see if Big Daddy and the Piggle wanted to see it. She came with me and Big Daddy headed out to the garage to get a light. I was hoping for a mellow flashlight, but he came out with our 2 million candlepower spotlight! He shined it on the house first and slowly moved upward, trying not to flash the owl in its eyes. We were able to get a pretty good glimpse of it before it took flight. It was beautiful! It glided off the chimney almost effortlessly and soared over our neighbor's yard and off into the distance. Big Daddy kept the spotlight on it and we were able to see the gorgeous markings and the fuzzy feet! And the most amazing thing was how quiet it was when it flew! No wonder they are such effective predators! I always feel so privileged to witness an animal in the wild and I am especially fond of owls!

If you are interested in hearing what I heard last night, there is a good recording on this link. Look for Great Horned Owl (a little ways down the page) and click on "pair calling". This is a nice link for owl information in general.

http://www.owlpages.com/sounds.php