So, when Mike asked if he could borrow my camera for his trip home - I thought sure why not, I won't miss it for a week. Well whadya know - I have found 5,327 reasons to need my camera in the last week.
The clincher of it all was just this very moment as I sit researching various blogging things - I hear a noise. I am not sure if it is someone breaking in to our basement or if it is the wind picking up at one corner of the house.
The cats freeze where they are standing... ears perk up. NEVER a good sign.
Then I hear it again, clear as a bell, it is an OWL. Not just any owl, but a Great Horned Owl! Out of sheer idiocy the first thing I do is turn off all the lights and run up stairs to tell my husband who has already been asleep for 2 hours! He is not at all interested and seems rather confused that I am talking to him.
I race back down the stairs, grab the flash light and sneak out the back door before any pain in the bum cats sneak out too. Thank goodness for once for the street lights that provided ample lighting back drop to get a good look.
He is obviously big, bigger than a Red Tail. AND THEN, I realize I hear another! They are calling to each other. OMG! My first real encounter with an Owl that is 1. Awake and 2. Not in a cage and 3. On my very own house!!!! Oh Isabel will have my head! She is going to rant and rave because I did not want to wake her up. She wants to go on a night hike for Owls SO BAD!
So, I take a quick look at him with my flashlight. Then I shine the light into the yard. It works, he perks up straight and there are those little "ears"! Amazing. One more look at him with the flash light and he decides he is done being my side show.
With no more than a woosh of air those big wings flap away in to the distance, across 5 roof tops over into the next village - is he meeting his mate? Is he looking for breakfast?
It blows me away the birds I actually see here. No it is nothing at all like Lisa see's at her bird garden paradise in Osage Beach, MO. But, considering that our area is all new construction in the last 1 to 12 years - the trees are miniscule. Nary a tree that reaches higher than a roof top. So really the habitat is sparse for breeding, nesting, roosting.
I guess a good meal is enough to stop for - and they do. No one ever stays long. But they come, they eat, and next season when they are on the road again, they don't forget me. They know I put out a feast, they know I have fresh water. They know I will sweep away the snow and give them windbreaks and make homemade suet and other things that make my husband roll his eyes at me.
Alas, it has been so long since I have added a new species to my life list that I can't remember where I am at? Nearing 150? Or just passed it maybe? I am no amateur anymore! I am a full fledged - 2nd year feathers and all - bird geek! The silly thing is - that I don't love birds. I just like the challenge of finding them, attracting them and identifying with the added bonus of a good walk with mother nature.
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