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the ocean always dreamed blue dreams

The Christmas Owl

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by
qimissung
, 12-24-2010 at 06:40 PM (1876 Views)
We were each of us ensconced in our own little corners of the house when my youngest son called out to us, "Come here. There's an owl in the tree in the back yard."

So we all ran to his room and looked out the window. There's a bush in the back yard. It's huge, two stories tall, and there were a number of birds in it creating a rucus, but I didn't see an owl. My oldest son saw it first. "There it is. The only thing I can see is his claws and part of his wing. His claws are huge."

We live in a suburb of a fairly large city. I've seen sightings of coyotes, but other than trees and flowers there isn't a lot of nature to see, so this was very exciting for us.

I looked and looked. It was like looking at the magic eye. Finally I saw it through the branches of the trees. By this time the birds, except for one, had disappeared. There was a branch in front of it, but I could see it's profile. It was small, about a foot tall, and so very solemn. It was staring straight ahead, impervious to the shrieks and caws of the birds. We looked at it for a long time. Finally it swiveled its head around and looked at us with it's great owl eyes, then flew away.

Merry Christmas, to one and all.

Qimissung
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Comments

  1. mtpspur's Avatar
    My siister collects owl carvings (I guess you would call them that) and hangs them on the walls of her home. I have never successfully been able to count them and even she doesn't know how many she has. Owls (to me) are very lovely birds. Merry Christmas.
  2. PrinceMyshkin's Avatar
    There's a somewhat eerie quality to this account. I was held in suspense and relieved that it ended without any misfortune.

    Merry Christmas and an early Happy New Year.

    Jer
  3. Buh4Bee's Avatar
    Owl are certainly stoic creatures. An owl sighting is a magical and almost spiritual experience. I had a sighting like the one described a few weeks ago. I was spell-bound for days after seeing it. Nice family moment.
  4. qimissung's Avatar
    That's kind of how it felt, jersea, magical and spiritual. Thanks for reading and commenting, Prince and Rich. Yes, he was fine when he flew away, Prince. I hope he found a satisfactory place to light.
  5. Virgil's Avatar
    I hear an owl on occaision, even here on Staten Island. But I've never seen one. I guess the most exotic bird I've seen here locally is a red tailed hawk. Oh, I just remembered. While with my dog on an early morning walk last week I saw a group of deer, and they quickly scooted into the woods. Now that is very unusual for here; don't forget, we're New York City. We haven't had deer here for decades, but apparently they have been swimming over from New Jersey.

    Hope you had a great Christmas.
  6. JuniperWoolf's Avatar
    I went back to the wildlife center for Christmas and there's a nice Great Grey in the back spare room (I think it ate something, maybe antifreeze). Damn! I should have taken a picture. Intimidating eyes, they have. Even though it's sick I can't stay in the room with it.
  7. qimissung's Avatar
    They're swimming over from Jersey...I'm still laughing at that one, Virgil.

    "A Great Gray in the back spare room..." that has a lovely, mysterious sound to it, Juniper. You are fortunate to be closer to nature, and of course you take the time to do so.

    Here is what my owl looked like, so I think it was a screech owl. Yes, such beautiful, intimidating eyes.

    http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...ed=0CCAQ9QEwAA