Nighttime Mysteries Revealed

These past few nights we've been hearing a strange, unidentifiable screeching sound in the woods. It's a bit eery and yet fascinating at the same time. You really want to know what it is, but are not yet prepared to venture into the pitch black woods to find out because it's scary. We guessed that it might be an owl, but being Flatlanders and all, always figured that owl's hoot, they don't screech.

Well, last night after karate, I was riding my bike home and it was twilight, with the change in seasons leaving us with shorter days. As I was riding down our driveway, the dim light making things barely visible, I heard the screech, and this time it was close. I slowed to a crawl and looked up to where I thought the sound was coming from and sure enough, I saw the owl. How cool is that?

It was beautiful, and so calm and stoic. She seemed unfazed by my presence. I was so engrossed that I rode off the drive and into the raspberry bushes. Ouch! I hurried home and got R and the kids and we walked to the end of the driveway, flashlights in hand, and got a birdseye (no pun intended) view of our first owl in the wild. It was cool, and everyone got a huge kick out of it.

It's small moments like that are precious, especially when you're a parent. Walking back, we could hear several owls in the woods, at least three. We hurried back to do some research and determined, to the best of our ability, that they were barn owls, but can't say for sure. They were screeching all night long, and we wondered if they were nesting nearby.

Pretty cool, if you ask me. Thanks for reading, and thanks to Gavin Vincent for the pic.