Yesterday morning I was in the kitchen when Gizmo suddenly completely freaked out and dove to the front of his cage. I thought he was going to launch himself but he just flung himself over the front of his cage and hung on, shrieking wildly in the process.
Then I saw something large and light coloured, with spotting on its feathers, fly away from the window that Gizmo’s very large cage sits next to.
I first thought it was a hawk; we had one try to catch a rat in the yard once. It missed the rat but then flew onto one of the low branches of the large rhododendron, where it sat for 10-15 minutes before leaving unsatisfied.
But this was no hawk.
It flew to a higher branch in the same massive rhododendron and I went into the dining room to look through the window to see what it was, when I realized it was an owl. I took a few unsatisfactory photos of it through the window before opting to see if I could get a few closer shots without disturbing it overly much.
Turns out that it was a very chill bird. I got a few shots and then realized it was going to hang out until dark. I had gardening on the agenda, some of it directly under where it was perched, so I let that go and focused elsewhere. Not sure I really had to worry about it as the owl watched me work on digging, pulling, pruning, and planting only 15 feet away from it. It kept an eye on me for awhile and eventually settled in to nap.
Kirk was thrilled that it was still in the garden when he came home from work four hours later.
As evening approached the owl woke up and its head started to swivel. It watched the birds that harassed it, very carefully watched a squirrel for a bit, and scanned the ferns below, presumably watching/listening for mice/rats in the undergrowth.
I hopped to a lower branch and barfed out an owl pellet, took one more flying leap at Gizmo safely behind the window and inside his cage, before giving up on our yard and flying off into the night.
I do love where we live, bordering on the wilderness, though I’d be happy if the bears stopped visiting….
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