We have been dogsitting Ruby and Maxi this week. On Sunday, I happened to look out the window and spied this huge owl perched directly above the fence, casually glancing over at the dogs at play. This is only my third sighting of an owl ever. The weird thing is that it was noonish, and they are supposedly nocturnal. Ruby just pranced and danced around the yard, eagerly licking Clover's mouth whenever she got a chance, oblivious to the fact there was a stalker in her midst. We have heard this owl before while dogsitting---one night we were woken up by him and some friends partying late night, around 2am. It sounded like a turkey festival with a laugh-off competition. They were definitely having good times. It even made Stuart and I join in the laughing as the noises were so strangely amusing. Luckily we think Ruby has gotten fierce enough, as you can tell by these pics, to fend for herself. 
6 comments:
Owls are probably the second most beautiful and fascinating animals on earth (bears are first, of course), and wild owl sightings are truly magical moments. It's amazing to me that owls cannot move their eyes within their eye sockets (!), and that the only way they can change their frame of vision is by turning their heads, which have a turning radius of 270-280 degrees. I also dig the way they've evolved to have extraodinarily thick feathers under their wings, which enable almost silent flight and ninja-like stealth. Oh, and like bears, they have no natural predators aside from helicopter-flying former vice-presidential candidates. Congrats on the sighting!
Your owl is a Barred Owl, you probably have heard them on the farm at night, the call goes "who cooks for you" it is a no brainer call. I had a nesting pair of Barred Owls about 5-6 years ago here. They can be perched in a tree right over your head and you might never even notice them.
Marko---Yes, the owls seem to have magic to them. You know quite a bit about the lovely creatures. We were wondering if there are any owl hootings on your new CDs. We'd love to have a demonstration of some owl ninja moves accompanied by turkey laugh-off sounds if ever you have the time.
Randy-Great hearing from you! Unfortunately we do not as of yet have a mid-week Durham drop off for our CSA. We have shares available for Wed. pick-up at the Foster's market in Chapel hill, but this sounds a bit out of the way for you. We'll go ahead and put you on our list of contacts for when we send out our sign-up list this coming fall---just send us your email address. And thanks for the 'hoot-hoot-hoo-hoot'!
Stuart,
We signed up with the joint coop at the Durham Market and yes we can pick up on Wednesday. The better half is a teacher at Central Park School just a block away. She might not admit it but I believe she's a pioneer in organic farming as she started a farm about 30 years ago, her ex still runs the farm. We just grow herbs, tomatoes, pepper, squash and cucumbers. And I have a butterfly garden that has seen 76 species of butterflies, only 88 species have been seen in Orange County.
PS I'm doing updates on our house addition I built on my blog.
Now that you mention it, if you listen really closely (and ask your upstairs neighbor to turn down the REO Speedwagon), you can hear some kind of hoot-hootenanny going on in the background of one of the whale song cds. The whales must have been swimming very close to the woods that day.
Randy - What is the "joint coop" at the Durham market? Is it a type of multi-producer CSA? Sounds interesting.
Marko,
Have a look at http://www.harlands-creek-farm.com/content/2023 This is supported by 4 farms in total, 2 for organic veggys and one for cheese another for meat.
Cheers,
Randy
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