The Owl Of The Carrell Wildlife Preserve

Normally when Molly barks, I ignore her until it's absolutely necessary. She barks at squirrels, turkey, deer, shadows, lights on the wall, her sisters ... you get the idea. She's an amazing protector dog, especially if there's movement somewhere around the house.

So when she started in yesterday morning, I didn't hurry too quickly to the sliding glass door. Expecting to see yet another fat little squirrel, I looked out to see the object of her fascination.

And that's when I saw it. We hear barred owl hoots every day and night. They're very loud, and they sound like "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you?" That's how you can tell which owl is which. But this was the first time I had actually seen it. 

It was obviously breakfast time, as it was wandering down the ridge to find food. I was amazed at how big it was, since the ridge is a few hundred feet away.

After breakfast it went up into the tree next to the big pond and surveyed its territory. I'm thrilled that we have the dense woodland that they like to live in. And hopefully it will have another brood this year, just so we can hear a chorus of hoots from our wildlife preserve.