Empty Stage

Rolling through the end of the night on our way to Owl Grove was almost fun and almost exciting and certainly strange. I had forgotten how truly closed the world almost is at 4 a.m. The night approaching morning was dark, still and quiet. It wasn't even raining.
We steathily made our way out of the car and waited at the edge of the grove until just enough light let us make our careful way to the shelter closer to the grove. We strained our ears and scanned the dark sky. We heard lots of robins. No hoots. No wingspans crossed the sky. When the light increased a bit more, we made our way slowly through the trees. We found the old nest. We had to wait even longer to conclude that it was empty. And still not a single hoo-hoo-hoo. Then when it was almost totally light, we were able to see evidence of chalky owl poop at the base of some of the trees. They had definitely visited the grove, but their physical and audible absence at this point informed us that they had not nested in this part of their territory this year. We stayed until we were sure of this fact and then made our way back to the morning proper. We formally closed the last page on the adventure part of Owl Grove and will only re-visit it if we happen to be in the area and when we are marketing the book.