It all began in this grove when the other grovegirl and I found an owl late last spring. We didn't expect to see one but we'd hoped to. She said, "Let's look for owls after lunch." Sure. All those trees and how do you look for owls, anyway? But we heard one and stuffed our lunch sacks and headed for the grove. "Just start at the bottom of each tree and look up slowly and carefully for something that doesn't look like 'tree' but looks like 'owl.'"
Right. I did a 180. No owl in the tree behind me. Back to the spot of origin and up, up, up. What's that? Looks like a teddy bear! "Hey, Sister, look at that! Looks like some sort of teddy bear up there." "OHMYGOD. . .it's (squinted her eyes) an OWL BABY (stretched her neck and squinted as if to project her sight better)! SHHHHHHH. We can't disturb it! And I think its parent is around. . .hear that hooting?
Stay here. Don't lose sight of this tree. I'm going back for my binoculars and camera!!!!" And clomp, swish, clomp, swish-she headed for the car and the gear.
I watched. I waited. My eyes burned and watered from watching, scared that I'd lose sight of this chancy find. I pulled my eyes down to the bottom of the tree to ease the watering and saw lots of bird poop. I knew I wouldn't lose the tree. When she came back, I gestured to the owl poop and she gave me the thumbs up sign. click. a photo. click. another. click and click and click. several more.
Parent owl began warning hoots and drew the baby away. We let them go without following because we needed to dance and jump and cavort out some of our happiness and excitement.
The adventure had begun.
Fall 2014
I actually like this picture!
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- grovegirl
- No longer young in body; hair has been freed; nurturing; one-eyed; poor sleeper; bossy; romantic; have watched "General Hospital" for 38 years; and have a fabulous people collection. I was mentored by the great Ernst Lau.
How exciting! The owl sighting AND the new business of making a book! When I was working in Creswell at the Elementary School praciticum site, I was walking our preschoolers from our classroom to the kindergarden playground; a path that took us under and through the large covered play area. All of a sudden, one of the children spotted a very large owl, sitting in the rafters. It was morning and the owl likely had finished hunting for food in the nearby field. He was so large and in such an open space that all the children could see. We sat down and watched and waited. The owl looked around and at us for a while. Then, left the perch and flew out from under the roof, over the field and into a grove of fir trees that bordered the adjacent high school fields. The wing span on that owl looked to be over 3 feet, but then I am not the best judge of size! It was like watching a small plane take off and soar around. The children talked about it for a few weeks, drew pictures, looked at books. How exciting and priviledged we feel when we get to witness such an exciting siting! When I was in Lake Tahoe, I met a naturalist photographer who has some amazing wildlife photos but his specialty is birds! I have his contact information if you are interested as he is involved in education as well as environmentally conscious for the sake of birds.
ReplyDeleteYeah for your blog! Yeah for your exciting adventure! Yeah for your upcoming book!