the owlery

January 8th, 2011 | Uncategorized

Yesterday at dusk I caught this owl spying on me through the window.

She was back this afternoon.

56 Responses to “the owlery”

  1. Anonymous says:

    Nice to know you are peep worthy.

  2. Ellen O. says:

    …launching themselves through the bare branches at dusk looking for a mousy fix…

    Ah, how very excellent to live in the woods.

  3. Dr.Empirical says:

    I can hear them in my backyard, but I never see them!

    The Fox, on the other hand, makes himself known frequently. (Probably there are multiple foxes, but it amuses me to attribute all the mischief to “The Fox.”)

  4. Ian says:

    Have you had any thick parchment letters through the letterbox lately?

    Very, very beautiful. There are owls living in a large city park near me and I’ve heard them but never seen them.

  5. Alex K says:

    Keep Dr Winnicott indoors, please, until the owl-clear signal is given…

  6. Kat says:

    That’s incredibly cool. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an owl that close (maybe at the zoo? Certainly never just out in the world), but they’re really interesting birds. I’m slightly jealous.

    The most interesting birds I’ve seen lately were the packs of quail that roamed around my not-in-laws’ property over the holidays. They’re pretty cute, but owls are way cooler.

  7. monz says:

    Yep, as Ian points out, that’s one Harry Potteresque owl, if I’ve ever imagined one. Magical letters are on their way to you no doubt.

  8. Calico says:

    Ginsburg Owl!
    She clearly fancies you, Alison. How owl-dorable.
    : )

  9. Lurk-A-Lot says:

    This has a mystical beauty about it. Seeing this owl video today is significant to me because it is the third in a series of owl related imagery that started four days ago.

    On Thursday, I had a conversation with a friend of mine about animal clans and which animal we relate to or feel represents us the most. His was the owl, mine was the bear. However, I have felt kinship with owls ever since I was young and discovered their close association with wisdom (something I felt was the highest attainment) and the Goddess Athena.

    On Friday, I chose a video on YouTube by Neko Case (never heard her music before) called Maybe Sparrow. In the video she is surrounded by owls. Beautifully illustrated video by the way.

    And today, this video of an (gorgeous) owl. The third in a series of three.

  10. Calico says:

    I should have also said, “Owlison”!

    (Sorry, I couldn’t resist!)

  11. S. Irene says:

    Coincidentally, the hummingbird is back on her nest …

    http://www.ustream.tv/hummingbirdnestcam

  12. butchysmurf says:

    thanks for the owl. we live in the wild west and see owls frequently. but not right outside the window. Whoooo-Hooo.

  13. meldyke says:

    wow – she is amazing, and almost surreal looking to me. i’ve always wanted to see an owl up close, but haven’t yet (well, not including this video). 🙂 we have been enjoying the variety of woodpeckers we are getting outside the kitchen window though becuase of the suet…. they’re getting fat.

  14. Joe Code says:

    S. Irene, That’s wonderful. Humming birds are so beautiful.

  15. Antoinette says:

    Why does she find you so riveting? Do you have a mouse in your pocket?

    We had one hanging around the backyard for a while. Its wingspan was oh, about 5 ft. Funny, after the owl-sighting, the birdseed-stealing mice disappeared.

  16. Andrew B says:

    S. Irene, 12, you reminded me of a couple of things. One that some people around here will probably like:

    Sarah Vaughan singing ‘Lullaby of Birdland’

  17. Kat says:

    5 foot wingspan? Really? Wow, I didn’t realize they were so big!

  18. LondonBoy says:

    I’m mildly pleased to report owls (and bats) in inner-city London too, if anyone’s interested. Oh, and urban foxes, but that’s rather less surprising.

  19. Therry and St. Jerome says:

    We have a glass back door that opens onto a half a hill of deep woods. Years ago, a Barred Owl came to visit and to perch ona nearby tree. I was looking at him late one night, and my Siamese cat hengist came out to see what was going down. The owl pointedly swiveled his head to look at Hengist and got that “Hello LUNCH” look on his face. Hengist beat feet out of there pronto! Always my favorite owl sighting, but yours is pretty great.

  20. Kat says:

    Wow, I’m impressed with everyone’s owl stories. My only encounter with one was as a small child. The “zoomobile” came to school, and I thought the owl was the coolest animal ever. Then it pooped on the auditorium floor, and my opinion changed……

  21. Pam I. says:

    @Therry+SJ #20, I’m having problems envisaging half a hill. Sliced vertically/horizontally?

  22. Kate L says:

    An owl was in the tall birch tree behind my house; it rotated its head in my direction and hooted at me. Synchronicity! It’s not just the name of a late 70’s Police* album anymore!
    * – Young ones, ask your parents.

    My least favorite Kansas church plans to picket funerals of Arizona shooting victims. A group called Angels has taken to surrounding and blocking the group to outside view at funerals by wearing angel-type robes and raising their arms. I’m usually too butch for a gown, but I’d be willing to wear one to block a Phelps’ family sign! I may get my chance next May, when the Phelps family pickets the Moo U spring graduation ceremony.

  23. SFGirl says:

    Kate L #23 – I heard the Arizona state legislature just passed a law making it illegal to protest or picket within 300 feet of a funeral, in response to the Phelps’ plans to picket the funerals of the Arizona victims. The first funeral they were going to picket was one of a nine year old girl. Can’t even think of words to describe how despicable that is.

  24. ksbel6 says:

    The Phelps’ 15 minutes is basically up though. They haven’t been to a soldier’s funeral in this area for the past couple of years, and at the beginning they would always be here. So I don’t know if they are running out of money, or if more people are trying to distance themselves from them, or what is happening, but they certainly have lost some power.

  25. Lila says:

    Hi!

    Well, i’m not here to talk about the owl, but about the fact that i’m reading your first book now and i’m in love with it! Your drawns are amazing! I can’t wait for the second book to get here in Brazil. I really admire you,hope you keep drawing, for me to continue reading it!

  26. Kate L says:

    I was given The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For for Christmas (the ideal gift! Always so welcome! Buy as many as humanly possible!), and I was struck by the new character introduced in the first few pages. She is a cartoonist who shows us to the cartoonist’s life archive in a special room of her house. When I noticed that the archive room is larger than the entire house, that’s when I realized something. Of course! Time and Relative Dimensions in Space! TARDIS! The cartoonist is a time lord from Galafrey*!!!

    * – hip Dr. Who reference, or at least it was before the last dust-up with the Daleks.

  27. Cathy says:

    Maybe this owl is considering using your yard as a nesting site. Wouldn’t that be awesome? Barred owls should soon begin courting in your area. They have a great birdcall–to hear one, go this site, then click on the “listen” button above the top photo:

    http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/detail.asp?recNum=BD0160

  28. Kate L says:

    I’ve just watched the memorial service in Tucson, Arizona, for the victims of last weekend’s shootings. President Obama and others spoke there, and I was reminded of the written descriptions of the memorial service given by President Lincoln and others at the Gettysberg battlefield in Pennsylvania after that American Civil War battle. If the Tucson community recovers as we hope the survivors of the shootings will, this service will have played a large part in that. I also had to notice the sharp contrast with what I witnessed as a 9-year-old child in Texas in November, 1963. My family had long planned to travel to the Texas Gulf Coast by way of Dallas to attend a family reunion,and I remember my father commenting to my mother before the trip that our travel plans would take us through Dallas just 24 hours too late to see President Kennedy. As it was, my father was driving our family through Dealey Plaza next to the Texas School Book Depository almost exactly 24 hours after President Kennedy had been murdered there. People were still in the streets, as they had been to cheer the president the day before, but by then they were in hysterics. I also remember several days after the murder, while my family was still in Texas, when the man arrested for the president’s murder was himself shot to death as he was being transferred from Dallas Police headquarters. What had been developing as a national consensus on the violence, much like today’s consensus, seemed to fall apart after that into something very different that included bizarre conspiracy theories. I’m hoping that history will go down a different path, this time.

  29. Calico says:

    Bird Song, Grateful Dead, RCMH 1980
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYA16z2-xFg
    “Dry your eyes on the wind…”

  30. Kate L says:

    That nice, young Dr. Rachel Maddow said last night that there is a new astrological sign, and that the birth dates for all the other signs have been shifted. That now makes me a Leo. I don’t want to be a Leo! I want to remain a Virgo! I’m saving myself for Maggie! 😉

  31. Uh, Kate L, I AM a Leo. But yes I have been hot/am currently hot for more than one Virgo. Don’t worry, I believe in nurture not nature — you have the right to be whatever sign you believe you are.

  32. ksbel6 says:

    Sorry folks, but RM took you down a wrong side street. The confusion that has caused all this excitement is that there are actually two different astrology systems. One is based on the seasons (the one we most commonly use) and the other is actually based on the constellations. The one based on the seasons will never change. If you were a Virgo, you are still a Virgo.

  33. Alex K says:

    @ksbel6: These things are fluid.

    Aquamarine jewellery makes your skin tones look muddy? Tired of forcing yourself to be hypersensitive and paranoid? You don’t have to stay a Pisces. Suppress your natural diplomacy and charm no longer! Wear opals for a life-giving glow! Go Libra!

    If you believe that you have a strong affinity for a particular starsign — pick your system, it’s up to you — then wait till the calendar indicates that we’re in that starsign and accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour. Presto! You are born again, and in the sign of your choice.

  34. ksbel6 says:

    Well said Alex K, well said.

  35. Kate L says:

    ksbel6 (#33) So, I’ll be a Virgo forever????????? Jeez, that’s depressing!

  36. ksbel6 says:

    As my wife says Kate L, ” I can make myself into a virgin whenever I feel like it.”

  37. jamie says:

    Just wait, Kate L., until one of those new Ophiuchusses comes your way. They may be not as sensitive as the Pisces or as charming as the Libra, but they are, well,…

  38. ksbel6 says:

    This is a link to a facebook page about a new book coming out that is edited by Ivan E. Coyote and Zena Sharman. Thought some of you might find it interesting. I have never read anything by Zena Sharman, but I thoroughly enjoy everything that Ivan does.
    Persistance: All Ways Butch And Femme

  39. Kate L says:

    ksbel (#6) Wow! I have never, ever facebooked but I might just sign up for this page! What a nice way for little ol’ Kate L to begin her facebook electronic footprint.

    Save the date, February 2nd, 2011. The second reading of adding LGBT to the protected classes of the Smallville human rights ordinance will be that evening. It will probably end with the commission voting to make the addition, but only after hours of angry opposition comment. I’ll be teaching class that evening, so I’ll have to be there in spirit just like I’m sure you will. The victory may be short-lived, however. City commission elections are in April; the conservatives who want to undo everything the present commission has done (not only amending the human rights ordinance, but such things as city inspections of rental properties) have already announced their candidates. No progressive has announced, and two of the progressives already on the commission have announced that they are not running for re-election.

  40. Mentor says:

    [For Monday: Rachel Bissex’s "Letter to Martin". –Mentor]

  41. Anonymous says:

    I just found this weekly gay comic strip, The Regulars by Karl Hampe:

    http://www.theregularscomic.com/

    I need a regular gay comic strip fix so I’m pretty glad to find this one. He’s even a DTWOF fan!

  42. Kate L says:

    My health insurance company here in the U.S. is contesting my second annual mammography, saying that the diagnostic code was inconsistent with my gender(?!!!) First, I lose my Virgo-inity due to astrological fiat, now this? I’m guessing that I should now expect an invisible force-field to keep me out of the women’s only section of the local MadWimmin’s…

  43. hairball_of_hope says:

    @Kate L (#44)

    Ask your medical provider or the insurance co what ICD-9 code(s) they used, then look it(them) up here:

    http://www.icd9data.com/

    BTW, breast cancer affects females and males, born and chosen, so it matters not if one is trans- or born- [gender].

    There are procedure codes for mammography (87.36 and 87.37), but there are no genders specified for these procedures. Any “gender cross-referencing” for mammographic procedures and diagnoses is purely an invention by your insurance co to deny payment. Note that just about all insurance policies exclude “sex transformation” procedures and meds (“sex transformation” is the term used by my insurance policy).

    They are likely looking for you to utter words that will allow them to deny coverage, so watch what you say.

    Of course, once you start spouting ICD-9 codes to your insurer, you could be diagnosed as 569.42 (Pain in the Butt).

    Perhaps they’d prefer V65.2 (Malingerer), but apparently that’s a billable diagnosis.

    (… goes back to her diagnosis of V69.4 [Lack of Adequate Sleep] …)

  44. Ready2Agitate says:

    Is Hairball just the greatest angel/helper/ally ever? I mean, she is constantly going to bat for us with her technical prowess. Hairball, I’m guessing that, similarly to Maggie – so obviously royalty – you’re a Leo?

    Happy MLK Day, friends. Google has a nice graphic today.

    Alex (34) Har!

  45. Ready2Agitate says:

    ps No regrets, Kate L – I think Mo may be a Virgo… (does anyone remember?)

  46. Renee S. says:

    R2A,,,yeah, for some reason I was thinking Virgo, too…same as AB?

  47. hairball_of_hope says:

    @R2A (#46)

    Aw shucks, Maggie’s the QUEEN around here (sorry boys). Me, I’m plebeian.

    The ICD-9 stuff is borne of miserable experiences with the [insert colorful expletive here] health insurance companies. They are always finding new-and-improved ways of screwing customers and medical providers alike.

    (… goes back to her free physical therapy, aka throwing darts at effigies of health insurance CEOs …)

  48. hairball_of_hope says:

    Typo, foo. Nay, wrong word. Should be born.

    Unless I’m wrong, of course. And then, HRH Maggie will set me right again.

    (… goes back to watching the early sprinkles of snow in the early hours …)

  49. Marj says:

    Coming soon, a must-have for all comic fans: A Very Public Love Story

    Maybe not.

    Of course Mo’s a Virgo. She’s a Librarian.

  50. Kat says:

    aw, Hairball, you’re AT LEAST in the aristocracy.

    Re: your insurance codes: My mom and her nurse friends have a diagnosis for when a baby arrives in the NICU and there’s just something…..off. Rule out all other diagnoses, and if the kid just looks “not quite right” he or she gets defined as “FLK” (funny looking kid). Night nurses have sick senses of humor….

    Hold good thoughts friends, I’m off to my first appointment with a therapist. I’m a little nervous.

    (well, first since the incredibly unsuccessful attempt while in college, where the counselor covered by my insurance said “you seem like you have a perfect life, what could possibly be wrong?”)

  51. Kate L says:

    Thanks, all. I tried looking up the code, but it is not in ICD-9 format(!) Kat (#52) So, like Mary Poppins, your first therapist thought that you are practically perfect in every way?

  52. Ian says:

    Good luck Kat. Let’s hope this time it works out better. I’ve found success in therapy very much relates to how well you ‘click’ with your therapist.

  53. Deborah says:

    Owls are very cool and so nice that you have one to watch outside your door, but keep your cats safe too!

  54. Str8ButNotNarrow says:

    Just dropping by to say I miss Mo & Lois terribly. Maybe someday we’ll see them again.

    Also – the same owl on two nights is definitely an omen, I think. Possibly wisdom, but maybe also a departed spirit trying to get in touch. More info: Google “owl omen.” There are way more links than I can list here…