Irritable Owl Syndrome!
The beautiful big Barred Owls are back! They had made our backyard their haven for a couple of years, till they ate themselves literally out of house and home. They have a pretty small range that they apparently keep around their nest. Since we are a subdivision and not the forest primeval where these birds really belong, there wasn't enough food to sustain them and they moved on for a while. It seems however, that they prefer our yard as a nursery this time of the year.
Just about the time that a few brave (or suicidal!) squirrels decided to move back, the owls returned! The owls must enjoy the mature trees in the rugged backyard. Our trees were large when we moved in years ago, and now they are big sturdy ones~ too big for me and my hubby to put our arms around and hug! Mostly oak and hickory in the backyard, which is pretty much wild, and a snapshot of a portion of the Great Smokey Mountains. Only fifty miles from our front door is the entrance proper to the Smokies. If we look out the back on a clear leafless day, the Smokies are right there...amazingly high and endearing, enduring...purple and hazy, the tendrils of moist vapor enveloping them most of the day, languidly burning off the fog, then settling in at the close of night, a misty blanket tucked in among the nestled foothills where our little house sets.
The other morning I heard the loud hunting “hoooo waaaah” of one of the birds...and running to the window caught a glimpse of the then silent drop of the owl as it dove towards its target, then with one powerful yet amazingly silent downward sweep of its wings, brushing our window as it caromed up into one of the oak trees to the tippy top, about sixty feet above! Total silence. Then...with a war-whoop of hunting success, it launched into three renditions of the Barred Owl's tell-tale song...”Whooooo coooks for youuuu?”, each successive call more loud than the previous. Then . Silence for the rest of the day.
Early evening again. One wouldn't need a clock or to have a window, because the owls would let you know what time it was. They're like clockwork. Several chuffing almost barking like hoots as a warm-up of sorts, then swift silence... perhaps two minutes later the victory chortles of a hunt that had gone well. At this rate, the varmints will be denuded in a few short weeks, then the owls will move on. They'll give it time, perhaps several months, then they will return to hunt and forage in our small wedge of what all the foothills once were for the great owls and other birds of prey that hunt differently now, adapting to modern life.
We see great hawks regularly as they soar effortlessly in the thermals over the major interstate I-40 that cuts through the heart of Knoxville, the tail end of the Tennessee foothills. The birds wait till some unfortunate critter blunders out onto the interstate and is hit by a car, then they go down and eat the carrion by the side of the road. You can tell when something is hit, and the size of it by the multitude of hawks soaring above the area.
In our suburban area there aren't the big critters like deer that get taken out on the interstate further up the road. That would be about twenty more miles down the interstate. Our area has more in the range of possum-sized varmints. I suppose it's a good thing that nature has adapted to the degree that it has, or we wouldn't see some of these birds of prey anymore.
One summer's day when I went to the mailbox, sitting up on the power line was an eagle. I couldn't believe it! Nearly as quickly as I registered what it was, it took one look at me and powered off, big wings carrying it swiftly away, deft as the thought of what it was.
It's nice to 'borrow' the owls once in a while, even though they don't stay near long enough to watch. They take care of any varmints we don't want near the house, along with ones that we rather enjoy~ like the squirrels. Too soon the trees will be bursting with squirrels as the acorns come in our great oaks. Then as though they've had a psychic call from the fractured remanent of old growth forest we treasure in the backyard, the owls will be back to gaze over the canopy of trees and dart wildly down to scoop up an early breakfast or a light dinner again!
And what does Frax think of our visitors? Not very much. He's so laid back it's difficult to tell if he really acknowledges these big birds are around the house. He should. Several years back, we were walking in the backyard side by side, when I felt 'someones' eyes on me! I looked to my left and there was one of the owls just sitting there among the dead leaves! It had blended in so well, I nearly bumped into it! I'm not sure who was more surprised, the owl or myself! And Frax? He blissfully tramped right by, even after I called his attention to it. When I describe Frax as laid-back, this would be a typical response for him...basically a canine "so what?" He's difficult to impress. Now if there was a three-foot high Milk Bone sitting in the backyard, well then maybe I would have gotten a more excited response!
