Last night while the Elder Extroverted Holy One was letting the dogs out (yes, dogs plural. That’s another post) she noticed some movement into a tree. She wasn’t quite sure what it was so she asked the Young Extroverted One to get me. There we were, shivering in the cold peering up into a tree. When my eyes finally adjusted to the darkness I spotted an owl! An owl in our semi-urban East Nashville yard!?! It was quite a site, us looking at her and she looking at us. As I crept closer with the YEO in my arms and a laser pointer to make sure that YEO did indeed see the owl (I was careful not to get the owl in her huge eyes) she flew off to the next yard and perched upon another tree to keep an eye on us. But the cold was too much and we rushed back inside.
On further investigation, because I’ve lost my art of bird identification, we found that the owl was a Barred Owl Strix varia. *As an aside, I had a Botany professor that told me it’s not about remembering ALL of the indentifications. Just knowing where to look it up.* Reading the description of habitat makes it even more strange that she was in our yard. YEO was very excited about the siting. She pretended to be an owl and told stories of owl visitations at her school during naptime. And then she passed out possibly dreaming of owls.