Well this morning I had a real "startle" as I walked down the hill from out of the brush came a big owl. I tried telling folks at work that its wing span was huge and they are all teasing me about how it seemed that way. But folks it was HUGE and I read they can be 60" and when you are only a few feet away that is a whole lot of bird. I have heard the owls before, on our evening walks but this is the first time I have actually seen one, especially so close. I guess it was a great horned owl and I looked on the net for one that most closely resembled it.
She (the females are larger) flew to the top of a nearby building and blinked at me several times. It was a strange connection with nature and rather awe inspiring. I know that one of these owls almost got a neighbors daschsund several years ago. I was relieved in my net searching that they generally are limited to 12 pounds or so. Tucker is safe :)
2 comments:
I believe you. Norm and I were driving back from Seattle one night, and about half way home along our mountain road we spotted in the headlights what we thought might be a deer, sitting on its rump. It was a huge, high, like two to three foot high, headless lump. We slowed way down, and then finally when we got fairly close it took off flying. It was an owl. It was huge. The wing span was unbelievable. We thought we were hallucinating because we were really tired, but when we told our neighbors and other locals about it, they seemed to even know the individual owl we were talking about. Aparently it loves to sit in the road, and will not fly away until the vehicle gets close, unless the headlights force a small animal to take a chance and run across the road. We all know how animals love to run when they see the headlights, their favorite game is to see if they can make it across the road without getting hit it seems. Anyway, I believe you. With "our" owl I would even worry about our 70 pound dog! This was about 9 years ago when we first moved up here. We have not seen any owls that large since, nor has this one appeared in a long time from what we hear. antemame
I have only seen barred owls close by -- but any big bird freaks me a little, even if they can be quite beautiful.
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