I was attempting to demonstrate to Jamey and Arthur how you can detect animals in the bushes at night by shining a flashlight into the brush and watching for the telltale reflection of night-eyes. Jamey said that sounded scary & I vaguely agreed with him.
That's about the time I happened to notice a decent-sized eye-glow coming from the brush on our eastern border. Being only one glow, I immediately supposed I was seeing only one side of a deer, but then I thought it might be a coyote with only one eye, or worse...a one-eyed bear! It's well known that Zimmerman's are able to discern one-eyed bears better than most.
Nevertheless, with Jamey and Arthur there, I didn't want to look nervous and impart upon them some irrational sense of fear of wild animals at night, so I suggested we investigate.
Arthur immediately scrambled up the hill, presumably to let Heidi know she should prepare the first-aid kit to treat the gory lacerations we would have, if we even made it back.
Meanwhile Jamey and Snowbear agreed to accompany me in taking a closer look at the one-eyed beast in the bushes.
As we got closer it suddenly happened that the one big eye resolved into two smaller eyes that were very close together. We stopped, suddenly feeling that we didn't want to scare this creature off as much as before.
After Jamey saw the two eyes and we both "Awwww"-ed at the cuteness of it. We tiptoed on. Based on it's elevation, we could presume it was a bird, though it wasn't all that far from the ground.
We were able to approach close enough to see dimly the size, shape and some of the coloration of the whole bird. It was an owl perched on the lowest branch (barely more than a twig) of a cascara tree.
Once she finally flew off, she tolerated our presence far more than most wild creatures, we came back to the house and looked her up in the bird book. The book affirmed the apparent "tame-ness" and said these owls have been known, due to their defensive "hiding" technique, to get bundled up by accident inside Christmas trees branches when the trees are cut and wrapped for shipping.
I wasn't able to get a picture because it was too dark & I didn't have my camera. But I found a blog with some very nice pictures of our new neighbor:
http://www.glennbartley.com/naturephotography/birds/NorthenSawWhetOwl.html
And for a sample of her song:
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Saw-whet_Owl/sounds
2 comments :
It occurred to the Great Grumpy that the fabled Yeti may have close-set eyes as well. And it is said that they languish in the woods at night, especially close to human dwellings.
Just a thought.
I looked up the bird and it is so cute. Sad to say I was really looking forward to another one-eyed bear story!
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