A barred owl (Strix varia) arrived today, and despite having to fly off a few times when I got a bit too close – and whenever I pulled out binoculars, which he apparently hates – he has come back again and again, and watched over my garden all day, as I cut wood, as I hauled wood, as I went to get water and as I stood and thought. Click on the photo for a closer look. These guys are colored exactly like the north woods, and are in many ways the animal that I most associate with them. I find it hard to look at them without thinking of wisdom and mystery and long, long patience.
In the winter here they are noticeably whiter and puffier. Impressively I saw one of these owls in the Everglades, and apparently they range all the way down to Honduras!
4 Comments
You mention the Everglades…I saw a Barred Owl in the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples. Was pure magic. Their [probably projected anthropomorphic] wisdom and actual patience is definitely part of it.
Awesome photo!!!!
thanks for a great photo. i hear this owl all the time in my woods, but never see him. now i finally have a better idea of the hooter’s looks, and yeah, his appearance suggests some age old aphorisms.
Alex, as for anthropomorphism, sometimes I think our ascribing wisdom to human beings is theriomorphism, ascribing to human beings a quality that only animals have.
Post a Comment