Thursday, February 19, 2015

The Old Screech Owl

This backyard cutie is hard to ignore. He likes to frazzle the chickens and get them all worked up despite being half their size. But how can I hold a grudge against him? This is the second year we've been blessed with his presence living out his winter in this tree. I love watching him.

It was one of those peaceful afternoons in the wilderness when the whole forest dreams, and the shadows are asleep and every little leaflet takes a nap. Under the still tree-tops the dappled sunlight, motionless, soaked the sod; the forest-flies no longer whirled in circles, but sat sunning their wings on slender twig-tips. Robert W. Chambers from "In Search of the Unknown"

13 comments:

  1. Great photos and post!
    We had one living in our back yard about 6 years ago already. They are so cute, but deadly too. We watched one kill a chickadee.
    Thank you for sharing.
    Carla

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes. This guy has killed a few of our quail. But it's hard to get mad at him. He needs to eat too.

      Delete
  2. What a lovely little bird, similar to our Little Owl. Like the quote at the end too - beautiful words.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gorgeous photos! At our former home, we had an owl that would perch in the vines of our courtyard wall in the afternoons. He was using it like it was a side of a cliff. He was so cute.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The middle photo with the owl is stunning. Love how you were able to capture him in such focus and detail with the background slightly blurry! Just beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have a Nikon with only a zoom lens so it works perfectly for capturing animals.

      Delete
  5. You are so lucky, I love owls and this one is a beauty.
    Hugs,
    Meredith

    ReplyDelete
  6. Beautiful. I love owls. Once my late husband and I were camping on the California coast. We were sound asleep in our tent when the fog rolled in and with it came a parliament of owls. And let me tell you, they were LOUD! We woke up in a panic! LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow, I bet that was something. You rarely see more than one at a time!

      Delete