Horse Manure Park

If you snooze, ya lose.  I was taking a nap (working the night shift has many drawbacks) when a new friend came to visit us late this afternoon. Beth took this picture.  The owl was just outside our house, perched very high in a jack pine.  Part of the soffit of the house is in the picture because he was up so high, but you can still see him clearly.  Beth said he was absolutely enormous.  Sorry I missed it. This is not a Barred Owl like our previous visitor.  The Barred Owl had a round head and dark, soft eyes.  This guy is undoubtedly a Great Horned Owl.  Notice the huge tufts ("horns") on either side of his head and the intimidating, pissed-off look on his face. We've lived here for 10 years and we've never seen owls before.  This winter, we've seen two different species (only three species live in Minnesota!).  Why the influx?  I don't know, but it sure is cool! Okay, Mr. Great Horned Owl, go get that bastard Pomeranian ...

I've talked about this dude before on my blog, but on Friday he really gave us a show.  He perched himself above the bird feeders in our back yard and waited for (I imagine) an unsuspecting squirrel to come along.  He eventually flew away with an amazingly huge wingspan... but here he is, our new neighbor, "Oscar" the Barred Owl.  I originally thought he was a Great Horned Owl, but this picture I snapped out our living room window makes it very obvious that Oscar does not have tufts or "horns" on top of his head.  His head is nice and round and he has the most incredible eyes.  Beth looked it up in our handy Birds of Minnesota handbook written by my friend Stan Tekiela, and he is undoubtedly a Barred Owl. The only other choice of owl in Minnesota (after Great Horned and Barred) is the Screech Owl, but that species of owl stands only 9 inches tall.  Oscar was an easy two feet from head to toe.  The only word I can think of to describe him is "majes...

It is not unusual for us to wake up to animal noises, provided by an imaginative four year old.  So when I heard "hooting" at 7:30 this morning, it didn't surprise me.  I was not happy, however, because it was loud and I was afraid Ava would wake up her little brother. But in a few minutes she came bounding down the stairs and jumped on our bed and the "hooting" continued.  Let me emphasize, it was loud .  By now the dog was awake, so I decided to let her out and go investigate. Once I got outside this "hooting" was very loud.  It was undoubtedly an owl, something I'd never seen in the wild before, so I decided to look for him (yes, it sounds like something Phyllis would do!).  It did not take me long to find him.  I should say them .  Two great horned owls perched high in a tree just across the street from our house.  They were magnificent!  And huge!  And loud! I managed to get a very poor photo of them before they both took...