Owl in the Treetop

All morning long we were hearing a faint hoot, hoot, hoot coming in the back door. I made a foray out to see if our friend, the owl baby, had come to visit again, but couldn’t see him anywhere.

Time passes . . .

The hoots continued, so I took my camera and went to search in earnest. And there he was – right in the ash tree, probably where he had been all along. He blinked down on me as if to chastise me for invading his “bedroom”, as it is no doubt bedtime for him at this time of day.

I don’t really know why he hoots like that unless he is just a baby and is confused about where the rest of his family is and is waiting for a parent to appear with a juicy breakfast morsel. He’d probably go for one of my poached eggs!

During the day, I went out a few more times just to say “hello”, but by mid-afternoon, he had taken his leave, and we heard no more.

I didn’t edit this picture, so it is really huge – 12MP – so if you click the picture, let it load, and click it again, you will see every little feather and some interesting little knobby things on his feet around his very impressive talons.

If you want to see him up close and really personal, click here ANIMALS SPOTTED or above under the banner, to get a feel for what it must be like to be his nestmate! Note that one iris is larger than the other; presumably because his face is partially in the shade. Again, this picture can be enlarged considerably as well.

This was a very thrilling experience for me. I was on the ground, and he was way up there, but with that amazing little hunk of electronics, I was able to be right up there with him. This is just a 24x camera, so I can only imagine what a thrill it must be to have one of the newer ones that will shrink distances even more.