Last week was noisy around here, at 3:30 am! Not really a time I enjoy being up, but I was! Hoots the owl was back and making so much noise. I would hear, “Hoot, Hoot” and then a “Squawk!” This was the second night in a row I heard the squawking, so I was afraid something was getting hurt.
The squawking continued, so I decided I needed to investigate, not even thinking that it could have been a skunk, a raccoon or heaven knows what else, I grabbed my flashlight, put on my shoes and went outside. The Hoot/Squawk continued and I found the tree it was coming from. I took my flashlight and started shining it up in the tree. What a shock it is to see an owl’s eyes in the light of a flashlight! And they are really big at 3:30 am! But sitting next to the big owl was a little fluffy thing. I had found my squawker….a baby owl! They are like fluffy balls. It was a great horned owl and her baby.

The hoot, hoot, squawking continued as I stood under the tree. They weren’t even afraid of me shining my flashlight at them. By this time, Emmet was sitting in the window meowing quite loudly. I was afraid he would wake the neighbors and if anyone saw me in my p.j’s shining a light into a tree, they might think I was nuts! I turned off my flashlight and went back into the house. It was time to go back to bed and try and sleep! Now that I knew I didn’t have to save anything, I would be able to relax and get another hour of sleep, hopefully! Enough investigating for one night!