Late one
summer night, about eight years ago, I
heard a ruckus in the front yard. I thought it was teenagers playing around,
imitating camp noises. When I went outside to look… I was surprised by what I
saw. Turns out I was wrong. It wasn’t kids after all. It was a Great Horned Owl. It stuck around
for the rest of that summer and then disappeared when winter rolled around. But
the following spring, it came back for a return engagement. And it’s been a
fixture here at our place ever since. By and large, this elusive bird only
ventures out at night to catch it’s prey. The bigger the better. (It hunts rodents, bats, skunks, raccoons, rabbits and squirrels.) But every now and then, I
catch a glimpse of it, in the daylight or around dusk. However, it never stays put long
enough for me to take a photograph. Talk about frustrating. Unfortunately this year… our friend the owl…
has taken up residence, in the tree, right outside our bedroom window. And... as a
result, we are having some pretty restless nights. It keeps waking us up with
his/her noisemaking, at the most ungodly hours... shrieking on, and on, and on.The Great Horned Owl’s hoot female or male… is
an eerie guttural sound that will frighten the bejesus out of you, if you are
unfamiliar with it. Legends and myths say that such creatures foretell death or
great fortune. I am hoping it’s the latter. Is there something that disturbs
your sleep during the wee hours of the morning?
