Backyard Wildlife

We were lying awake in bed last night, talking about office politics (his and mine) when we heard it. Our conversation stopped quickly and we lay in silence, hoping to hear it again.

Then we did.

The owl was back.

A couple of months ago we heard owls for the first time – well, one at least. My husband was working late in the study and I had dozed off while waiting for him to come upstairs. The call of the owl woke me up and it was clear it was close by. Perhaps in the nearest tree. My husband came upstairs to listen more closely, and look out our bedroom windows. We spoke quietly, listening, listening.

My husband put on a sweatshirt and retrieved a flashlight. He tried to creep quietly out the front door to look for it. It was close to the full moon, and the yard was full of shadows. He spied the owl in the tree and shined his flashlight at it, reflecting its eyes. Then it spread its great wings and flew to a tree in the far corner of our neighbor’s yard.

We were afraid we had scared away the owl. We hadn’t heard it since. Perhaps we had not been awake late enough (unlikely), or perhaps we just weren’t paying attention.

Last night when we heard the owl calls again, we raised the shades on the windows and peered out. Like before, it was close to the full moon and the yard was full of shadows. We looked hard in the trees but couldn’t see anything.

I looked on the local Audubon site this morning about the types of owls that might be in the area. There was a long-eared owl spotted at the wildlife sanctuary in the next town just two days ago, and a short-eared owl in the same place two weeks ago. Perhaps it was one of those birds.

I was also intrigued by the Snowy Owl Project mentioned on the site (including a photo of a color marked snowy owl on our local beach). Their migratory range is amazing. The site includes a map showing the range of a particular snowy owl male. I never thought of my local beach as a balmy place to winter, but apparently it’s nice and warm to birds that summer close to the Arctic Circle, near the northern reaches of Hudson Bay.

We lay there listening to the owl calls – about every twenty seconds or so – for about thirty minutes. We tried to listen how it moved through the trees. Was there more than one? It was hard to tell.

Then I had one final thought.

Could it please shut up already so I can get some sleep?

Update: After perusing the information and listening to calls at Owl Pages, we think it was a great horned owl - possibly a male making his territorial call. C has made us promise to wake him up if we hear it again.