Owls

In Harry Potter, owls are just delivery boys, but the Sioux and some other tribes believed that if an owl took notice of you it was a message that you were doomed to die soon. They are equivalent to the Grim Reaper.

A few weeks ago, Keith and I went pig hunting. I sat up in my favorite tree stand and enjoyed a very pleasant evening. A boar even came in, although he came in behind me and I didn’t get a shot. But that’s beside the point. As it was getting dark, an owl flew in and landed in a tree right over the feeder. There are lots of owls in that wood and we see them and hear them hooting all the time, but not usually that close. I enjoyed watching him and he quickly started watching me, too. Then he flew to a tree just behind me. I had to lean way back to watch him, but it was way cool to have him so close. Owls are interesting birds. They have exceptionally large heads to support their extra large eyes that enable them to hunt at night in the woods. Their wings are bent further forward than most birds’ wings, and their feathers have fluffy trailing edges. Those two odd wing attributes make it so they fly silently and it is kind of eerie to see them flying around against the night sky. So that’s why I was studying this owl in the tree behind me. I looked back towards the feeder finally, mostly to give my neck a rest, when the owl left that tree breaking off a branch as he launched. That is really odd – remember all that about how they fly silently? They are all about stealth! He only flew a short ways and landed in another nearby tree, and when he left that one he again broke a branch. He did that for 20-30 minutes before he finally moved off. He landed in trees all around me, watched me for a bit from each perch, then broke a branch off as he flew. I guess I was encroaching in his/her territory, but it was extremely odd behavior for an owl. I enjoyed it all, but it did remind me of the Sioux and their version of the GR. So far, though, I’ve been OK. I haven’t died, yet. Knock, knock.