Owl Magic

As some of you have realized I am very fond of birdwatching. 

Either I observe the birds around my feeders, 

or I go on birdwatching with fellow birders from the island. 

(Sometime we end up finding sea glass too)

It is fun and I learned a lot about the birds we see.

Some specimen are more difficult to find than others, 

especially the owls. 

Or at least it seems to be more complicated for me, 

as you soon will come to understand.

Image: FreeVectors.com

One evening a birders night-out was arranged. 

At dusk we stopped at places where owls were known to hang around. 

Image: onthejob.45things.com

All of us where standing in the dark, listening hard.

***

They:

 "Can you hear it?” 

"There - it’s a Barred Owl.”

*** 

“Listen!  There - this is a Screech Owl!” 

***

"OHH! - there is another one answering!"

***

***

***

***

I:

***

***

 “Maybe? No, nope, nix, nill?”

Image: ClipArt Library

That’s my problem, a couple of years ago I got diagnosed 

with a mild hearing loss and 

even with hearing aids and fresh batteries 

I was not able to hear a single

HOOT!!

*

During the last couple of weeks my fellow birders 

had several encounters with owls,

even in bright daylight! 

They would walk a trail - and an owl would  fly up into a tree. 

A photo showed the beauty.

Barred Owl

Photo: Susan Cline

A few days later another (or the same) owl was seen 

close to the same spot. 

And - on a third occasion, while driving around, 

they observe an owl AGAIN!

Now - isn’t that a bit unfair, I asked myself?

Image: clipart image.com

So, yesterday, while spending the whole day canvassing the island and counting birds 

for "Christmas Bird Count Day”, 

I asked my most eagle-eyed birder friend: 

"Can you do your magic and find an owl for us today? 

I would so love to see one!”

Image: shutterstock.com

The answer:

“Uhm, no, not today, I feel I am not in the right mood.”

Too bad for me. 

*

Going on, we soon forgot about the owls 

as we found other birds: 

an elusive Northern Shrike,

 and a beautiful Red-tailed Hawk.

 So, there!

*

This morning, however, I was in for a surprise. 

Finally I got to see an owl and on my own property!!!

When I took a look over the yard I saw something sitting on the ground near the side of the road? 

An owl?! 

On a closer look it turned out to be an owl decoy! 

Huh!? 

"How did that end up there?” I asked hubby. 

"Maybe the wind had blown it over from a neighbour's property?”  

I went to pick it up and - discovered that it was 

NAILED to the ground! 

Now - who in the world could have done that? 

Nail an owl decoy to the ground on our property?

As you might have guessed by now - it did not take me long to sort out several other people 

who would know about my passion for birding 

and ending up with the real “culprits”: 

my fellow birder friends!

It turned out that the "owl" had already been sitting there for TWO whole days, 

waiting to be discovered! 

And yesterday, when I innocently asked, 

they ALL kept up a straight face! 

It seems I am not only deaf but also totally BLIND! 

Image: YouTube

We all had a good laugh about this lovely prank! 

Thank you so much. I got my “owl”.

And the owl decoy might come in handy to protect my veggie garden.

Wasn't that fitting? Hubby found a bottle of "Winking Owl" wine
to accompany dinner today. 
"Cheers!"

_________________________________________

Translation

Viele wissen ja bereits das ich gerne Vögel beobachte, sei es am Futterhäuschen oder zusammen mit Gleichgesinnten. Es macht Spass und ich habe viel über die gefiederten Freunde gelernt.

Einige sind schwieriger zu finden und dazu gehört die Eule. 

Wir sind an einem Sommerabend zusammen ausgegangen um Eulen zu belauschen.

Im Gegensatz zu meinen Kameraden habe ich leider absolut nichts gehört.

Trotz Hörgerät mit frischen Batterien. Nix, Null, Zero.

Zu meinem Erstaunen haben die anderen in den letzten Wochen dann gleich dreimal die Gelegenheit

gehabt eine Eule zu sehen, sogar am hellichten Tag!

Das ist doch unfair, oder?

Gestern nun waren wir unterwegs zur alljährlichen Vogelzählung und ich fragte ob man 

nicht die magischen Kräfte einsetzen könnte um eine Eule hervorzulocken.

Keiner verzog eine Miene.

Nö - man war nicht in der richtigen Stimmungslage dazu.

Zu dumm aber auch!

Naja, wir haben aber andere schwierig zu findende Exemplare gefunden.

Heute morgen kam dann die Überraschung!

Eine Eule sass auf unserem Rasen!

Nach näherem Hinsehen entpuppte sie sich als Attrappe.

Festgenagelt in der Erde.

Wer konnte das wohl gewesen sein?

Es dauerte nicht lange bis ich die Täter ausfindig gemacht hatte:

meine Vogelfreunde von gestern!

Sie meinten ich sollte doch endlich mal eine Eule finden können.

Wir haben alle sehr über den gelungenen Schabernack gelacht.

Vielen Dank!

Die Eule wird in Zukunft meinen Gemüsegarten bewachen.