For The Birds

We have an amazing variety of wild life living in our very close to urban suburb. My gardens remain largely unmolested by squirrels, rabbits and such due to the hawks and owls that reside in our treetops.

You might remember a few years ago when we had an owlet sighting at a neighbor's house? This year the owls nested and hatched nearly in our back yard. Many evenings as we've sat outside having dinner we could hear them hoo-hooting away.

A few nights back Precious Youngest was headed out the door and I could hear frantic ...I don't know...sounds of some sort. I went to investigate and found her standing stock still in the doorway and gesturing wildly at me while hissing "Camera! Camera!"

Two young owls were perched on our fence mere feet from where she was standing. I handed her my shitty Fuji point and shoot camera, at which point one of the owls startled and flew away. But the other was way too interested in us to fly off.

I realize these look like pictures of bad Halloween decorations, but Precious Youngest turned off the flash so as not to scare the remaining owl away. He/she was a good two and a half feet tall. We know it was one of the babies because:

1. The adults don't EVER come that close
2. The parents (we presume) were sitting up in an Oak tree calling apoplectically to him/her get the hell away from us already.
   

If Precious Youngest had used her super nice because this is what we want to do with our life camera you can be sure the quality of photos would have been better.

In any event, the owlet sighting stopped all activity until he/she finally flew off. Pretty cool, no?