hoot hoot hoo-hoo

Last night, about 3 am (so really, this morning) there was an owl in my back yard (or close enough to my backyard to be heard by me, in my bed). Tituba (my cat) was totally unconcerned. Eventually, neighbor dogs "kicked up a ruckus" and the owl quieted down. I lay there and seethed about neighbors with noisy dogs for a while and went back to sleep.

However, some big owls do scoop up "small mammals." So we'll be keeping an eye on the back yard for a while. I doubt it was one of the big ones. The web says we get Western & Eastern Screech owls around these parts. It sounded a bit like the Western one's call.

Kind of neat though. Whodathunk that you could get an owl in the middle of suburbia? I mean, we're not exactly Texas Hill Country here-- I'm walking (yes a long walk but still) distance from a Starbuck's-- this aint no wilderness! But these kinds of owls do turn up in suburbs. A lovely photo of them on the Internet says a small Eastern Screech owl family was found in a trailer park's tree. (Scroll down to the one with several grey owls.)