Last evening around sunset, I was out changing the water in
the deer trough, errr bird bath, when I heard a familiar sound.
'Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoo, Hoo Hoo". Summoning up my inner owl, I replied
in my own attempt to converse with Mr. Bubo. To my surprise, he
replied back. We bantered back and forth, until I saw a large form
pull up into a tree some 200 feet back near the edge of my lot.
After a few more exchanges, he pulled up to about 75 feet from me.
I made a few more calls, and he flew over me, and headed towards
street across from my house.

Tonight, with my wife as my spotter, we trudged though the snow
to the back of the lot. Again it was twilight. Again we heard
the familiar hooting. I traded calls with the owl again. In just
a few moments, we saw his form glide up silently to a tree nearby.
He moved again , and again, until he was directly above us. We could
see his large "ears" in silhouette, and the white of his chin when he called. We admired him for quite a few moments, as he continued to call.

Finally, we made our way back to the house,each hoping that he would
stay around tonight, and in future nights to captivate us with his call.

Sometimes you can have a fantastic day of birding and only see one bird.


See you  on the trails,


Chris Pierce
N. Olmsted, OH

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]