Posts Tagged ‘Owl’

5 Jul

RX: Notice Nature

Posted by DOGKISSES in healing, health, Nature. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

I live in one wild corner!

Our newest wild resident is a deer.

She’s a brave young Momma and struts around like she owns the place!  Her territorial behavior makes me a little nervous.  In the photo below, she’s only a few feet from my door.  I stay back, keep my distance and she looks over at me from time to time, I guess checking to see if I’m still there.  After all, this is her new home and maybe in her mind, I am the resident human, who she thinks acts a little weird.

the young mother deer hangs around the yard

MY Home!

A few nights back, a neighbor knocked on my door.  She looked rather stunned.  I stepped outside.

First, she pointed at the deer standing close to us.

“Oh my!”  I gasped.

The deer was closer than usual!

We’ve become used to the deer and its territorial antics, but we had never seen it come for a sleepover right outside our doors, which is exactly what the deer did.

The neighbor pointed to our right and in a slight voice, suggesting she was taken by all the wild activity going on, she said, “The owls are here too.”

Two Barred Owls were perched under the street light on the electrical wires behind our building.  Oh, we’ve seen them before, both day and night, but lately, we’ve heard them too!

The owls were making a sort of hissing sound.  I’d heard the nightly noise for about ten days, but I wasn’t sure of the source. 

Barred Owls make several sounds other than the most known call (hoot), that can sound like they’re saying, “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?” 

I think the hissing sound we heard was from a fledgling.  The timing makes sense, because I heard the Barred Owls mating in springtime.

The hissing is a mysterious sound, and I think it’s a bit eerie for some people, but I love the owls and their presence is soothing.

Some people are afraid of owls.  Others say seeing one is a bad omen.

I respect the owl and feel protected when they come around.  Owls eat snakes, mice and rats.  They watch the darkness and alert their mate or youngsters (and me), of unusual intruders.

If you’d like to see the Barred Owl and hear the hissing sound, here is a video from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology on YouTube:

My neighbor and I stood together for a few more minutes in the wild of our otherwise pretty normal residential neighborhood.  We watched and listened.  The owls were successfully hunting.  The deer was cozy in the corner of the yard.

OUR BEAUTIFUL RESIDENT BARRED OWL

Barred Owl hunting in daylight in North Carolina Town

Perched Above Creek

The air was thick with wild.

“I also saw a big snake on my walk home,” my neighbor added.  “I think it was a Copperhead.”

Our wild backyard scenario was becoming more interesting by the second!

Barred Owls at Night

To our left, the Barred Owls hunt

wildlife comes to camp

To our right, the deer prepares for bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank goodness, I don’t have a photo of the snake!  I’d rather they are not seen by me.

 

Nature is very much alive where I live and the residents do take notice.  Every neighbor I’ve talked with mentions something about the natural environment around here, usually pointing out one creature or another.  The children seem to like the turtles and the adults often mention the Great Blue Heron. 

A sense of community can be felt in our common awe, interest or simple excitement, inspired by the wild things that live amongst us.

Seeing the owls during the day (and capturing a few photos), is a beautiful thing.  Watching all the pretty birds, listening to the sounds of nature, and once in a while, getting a glimpse of the Great Blue Heron, are each blessings of beauty.

Nature’s beauty is healing in so many ways.  Beauty shows up unexpectedly too, like in the green muddy moss on the turtle’s shell and the hissing owls.  I think those are beautiful things.

A flood zone, surrounded by a creek, with a pond in the center, apparently has a unique ecological system, which is a big reason why we have a diverse community of wildlife, such as the family of turtles that live in the pond.

Below Photo:

A resident turtle.

Normally, the family of turtles take leave and dive into the water when people approach, which they did, but one came back after a minute or two of my arrival, climbed on the rock and gave me a stare!

Pond Turtle is Big!

I Like Water, Mud and Sunshine

Maybe I imagine these wild-life-looks I get, but I must say, I believe communication happens.  I like that.

For instance, I played with a white butterfly the other day.  That’s right.  We played and I had a grand time!

I was growing a few Kohlrabi plants, which might have been the reason for my playful winged visitor, the Cabbage White Butterfly!

I was so happy about my time with the butterfly, that I shared photos and wrote a little about it in my photo journal blog, Green Healing Notes.

Photo Below:

A Green Healing Morning with the Cabbage White Butterfly!

Nature is Beauty

Beauty in the Cabbage Patch!

I need the outdoors to thrive; whether it’s walking through woods, tending plants, birdwatching, chasing butterflies, or taking photographs of the beauty I see. 

In nature, even in my own little green space, with one butterfly hovering around, I lose myself.  Or perhaps, I find myself and lose the rest.

Thank you for visiting my blog!

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dogkisses

 

 

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21 May

Predictability

Posted by DOGKISSES in Home. Tagged: , , , , , , .

From the woods, I heard a gentle “hooo.”

Oddly, my insides churned.  The sound of our resident owl during daylight hours was unfamiliar. 

Normally, the owl would call about three minutes after sundown.  I’d grown used to it since early springtime, at least after the bird found a mate and from the sound of things at night, they had made some baby owls.  From then on, the calls were dependable and predictable, but hearing the majestic bird during the afternoon hours didn’t make sense to me.

I felt a pending doom, which I found curious and strange.  I let it pass, I thought, and continued to prepare for guests in my new apartment.

The Resident Owl Daytime Hunter

HIYA! I’M OWL!

I was tired and hungry.  My mood was fragile.

“How are you liking your new place?” one of my guests, John, asked me.

I was comfortable and pleased to see that I had arranged my living room furniture in a small circle because the intimate setting was perfect for the occasion.

My guests were friends from a small church where my son has gone for the past year.  I’ve gone a couple of times and attended a weekly small prayer group.  I like the people I’ve met through the church.  I especially like the young Deacon (and his beautiful wife), who will soon be a full priest of the small Anglican church.

My adult son and I met the Deacon rather mysteriously and most necessarily one early and difficult Sunday morning.  I believe it’s possible that our meeting him was a divine intervention.

The primary purpose of our recent gathering at my apartment, as well as my son’s place, was for prayers and a proper blessing of our homes.  The time was also, “Holy Week,” and the church members were reaching out to help people in need.

I was in need. 

“I’m having a hard time adjusting to the sounds and lights,”  I told John.

I started telling them about the owl’s soft call and that I had been uncomfortable that it called during the day.  Within moments, I was sobbing.

“I’ve never heard the owl call during the day,” I cried.  “I don’t understand.  Maybe something is wrong with the bird,” I told them.  I cried more.

John initiated the prayer time.  I was glad and grateful. 

He started a special healing prayer for me.  Each person said a prayer, and then I prayed for John.  He used, “holy water,” to bless each of us.

After we prayed, the elder walked around my apartment.  He said more prayers and sprinkled some type of salts on the floor of each door and near the windows.

My new place is in a flood zone.  Sixty eight families lost their homes in 2013, which is why the place was vacant.

The Deacon had a special water he used to bless the home and keep us safe from floods.

I can honestly say that I feel safer about the water than I did before.  I won’t leave my dog home alone when it rains and the floods might come again, but I believe we’ll be safe.

By the time the prayers and blessings were over, I was able to laugh about being upset over the owl’s timing.  However, the experience did leave me curious and a little concerned.

The owl’s calls soothe me, not simply because I like wildlife, but the predictability brings me solace. 

I get a similar feeling when I hear a nearby delivery truck every morning at the same time.

Thanks for visiting my blog, dogkisses. 

Note:  Since I wrote this post several weeks ago, where it stayed in my draft folder, a flood has come and it was not easy, but we stayed safe and my home was not damaged.  The grass is brown from the creek having risen like it did, intertwining itself, eventually into my yard, so that around midnight, my little corner where I call home was part of the current.