Warning: Aidan's behind the keyboard again!
So, I'm lounging in my favourite seat, look up through the kitchen window, and see two eyes starring back at me:
Here he is a bit closer up:
He sat perched here for most of the morning, waiting for the squirrels to scamper across our porch steps. We even saw him dive down on one! He missed that, flew up to his branch again, and actually "hung his head" in shame, as if to apologize to us for missing it.
Some googling led me to believe it was a Barred Owl, common in swampy forest in this region. Barred owl can grow up to 25", with a wingspan of 50". This one looked to be about 18" tall, and when he flew up to his perch again, seemed to have a wingspan of over 3'.
And when I went out to finish a bit of shoveling so I could get the car out to stock up on water for our snowed in weekend, he didn't seem to give two hoots about me. He was still there when I got back.
Marvelous majestic animal! Here's a better quality photo to show you what we were admiring this morning.
