Owl be seeing you

As this is written, a barred owl is perched on a branch of the oak tree just North of the deck behind the house. S/he's been there for several hours. Woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches continue to visit the feeders hanging on the deck but both red and gray squirrels are conspicuous by their absence.

barred owl on oak branch

Photo by J. Harrington

I'm delighted by this state of affairs since barred owls are one of my favorites. Also, since a fair part of yesterday was spent repairing squirrel-damaged bird feeders, there seems to be a certain poetic justice to today's visitor appearing and hanging around.  We have our fingers crossed that s/he finds a suitable nest site and settles in for this year's mating season.

Meanwhile, out in the fields behind the house, we've seen neither hide nor feather of the deer and turkey populations, with  the possible exception of a deer sighting at dusk a week or so ago. Fresh whitetail tracks show up from time to time, but by the time we see the tracks, no one's in them.

As you know, tomorrow's the last day of January and next weekend threatens to inflict a polar vortex on us. At least by then we'll be 1/4 through February. Meanwhile, as we finish this posting, our visitor has flown the branch.

A Barred Owl

By Richard Wilbur

The warping night air having brought the boom

Of an owl’s voice into her darkened room,

We tell the wakened child that all she heard

Was an odd question from a forest bird,

Asking of us, if rightly listened to,

“Who cooks for you?” and then “Who cooks for you?”

Words, which can make our terrors bravely clear,

Can also thus domesticate a fear,

And send a small child back to sleep at night

Not listening for the sound of stealthy flight

Or dreaming of some small thing in a claw

Borne up to some dark branch and eaten raw.

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