A Conversation With An Owl

I was getting ready to settle down for the evening last night. I had just finished brushing my teeth when I heard it through the window in our room: the distinctive “whoo, whoo, whoo” of a Great Horned Owl. This magnificent creature and I were about to have a bit of a conversation.

We live on the northwest edge of town, there’s some open space just beyond our backyard with a grove of towering eucalyptus trees and a couple of  really tall redwoods too. Every so often we’ll hear an owl up there but those occasions are few and far between so when they happen I always take advantage of them. I stepped out onto our back deck and waited, soon came its call; three long whoos followed by three short ones. Every couple of minutes this bird repeated the pattern. I decided to mimic it to see if I’d get a response. Sure enough I quickly received a reply. So back and forth we went for nearly 30 minutes me and a Great Horned Owl having an interspecies chat on a beautiful autumn evening. It sent chills down my spine, not in a scary way but in amazement. The owl was fairly close, I was able to pinpoint its location in a redwood tree just across our back fence and in front of my neighbor’s house. Its call was deeply resonant and filled the air around me. Our cat Ella was out there for a while with me, I pulled her onto my lap, not wanting to take any chances. Ella’s fur is yellow, easily visible to an owl. The Great Horned is a fierce and powerful predator and would have no trouble carrying a little kitty like Ella away. I wonder if some deep instinct in Ella kept her from wandering away?

So back and forth we went, the owl and me. I felt so blessed. If I’d been inside the house playing my guitar or watching tv these human-made sounds would have drowned out those of the owl and the encounter never would have happened. Then just as suddenly as they began, the calls stopped. Off the owl went on its nightly hunting foray. The spell was broken. I sat out for a little while longer breathing in the remnants of this magical, mysterious experience and just letting it all soak in.

Animal encounters like this  are no accident. Yes, you need to keep your eyes and ears open and being in the right place at the right time definitely helps but I believe that an animal chooses to show itself to you. Why? Well, that’s a mystery all in itself. I always come away from an experience like the one with the owl tonight with a sense of wonder and a feeling of deep gratitude.