Great Horned Owl on Halloween

~ Amusives

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”
“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”
“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully.
“It’s the same thing,” he said.
– A.A. Milne –

The Owl
7-owl-in-treeJust before the sun came up yesterday, I heard the hoot of an owl. It sounded very close, so I grabbed my camera and quietly slid the patio door open. I stepped out onto the deck. The owl hooted again, but it was several hoots later before my eyes adjusted to the dark. Then I spotted it at the top a very tall spruce tree near the house!  I took a number of pictures, some with flash, though I didn’t think the flash would be much use when the owl was over 30 feet away! The owl hooted a few more times. I looked down to check the setting on my camera and when I looked up the owl was gone – so quietly I hadn’t even heard it leave.

Can you see the owl in the photo? It is a side view, with the head on the right, the tail on the left. One of the tree branches obscures the owls right eye. I think you can see the ear tuft, which would say it was probably a Great Horned Owl.

Once the owl left, there was nothing left to do but watch the sunrise. It was a more successful photo!

7-sunrise-nov1

9 thoughts on “Great Horned Owl on Halloween”

  1. I tried, but I couldn’t see the owl. I was never good at the Where’s Waldo pictures either. 😐

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    1. Hi Lorna – I understand that it is awfully hard to make out that an owl is occupying the top most tip of a spruce tree. But trust me, the blob that doesn’t look like a tree, is an owl!

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  2. I was listening to a wonderful public radio show about calling owls to you. It was fascinating. I haven’t heard an owl near my home on the edge of a city. We have deer, fox and turkey but I haven’t seen an owl yet. Maybe I should try calling them? And as a side note… I loved the Pooh and Piglet excerpt. I relate to Pooh.

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    1. Hi prairiewisdom – That is what I need to learn to do – I need to learn how to call an owl! Thanks for the suggestion!

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  3. I can see the owl. 😉
    How did you get through the rather dark months as far as photos were concerned? Did you take as many as during the other months or did you resort to the archives when you were blogging? I’m wondering, because I don’t think I’ll take a lot of outdoor pics until March. Maybe I better find the missing tripod part (a little thing that got lost during my last move)…

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    1. Hi Sanetes – The shortest number of daylight hours we get here in winter is 8. The sun will be reasonably low on the horizon, but I live in a province with a lot of sunshine (vs rainy and foggy days) so I don’t find the winters too dark. What keeps me inside is the cold, of course.
      This past winter I took a lot of outside photos of snow, frost and ice!
      But you are right about using archive photos. I expect I will use a few of those to brighten things up. There are only so many ways to write about snow!

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      1. I was thinking about setting the tripod up in the kitchen occasionally. Cooking and baking keeps me warm and the blog colourful.

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