*The first sighting of the Barred Owl in my backyard on 7/15/2022. Meet Rob*.

Not Your Typical Friday Night

I had just watered my new pollinator garden. Back when I could, when water use was not restricted.

Nobody was home, but me. John was on his ASP mission trip in Kentucky. Kaleigh was away for the night. So, it was just me and my gardens. And the birds. Can’t forget the birds. Well, squirrels and chipmunks, too.

My typical routine is to water the gardens, which takes about an hour, or so, then just sit and enjoy the music of Mother Nature.

Because I’m a competitor at heart, I challenge the universe to help me get the trifecta every night that I have the chance to sit at dusk: bluebird, cardinal and hummingbird.

It happens more than I ever thought it would, which delights me to no end.

APP ALERT!

So, on Friday night, July 15, I was sitting there, simply chilling, and decided to launch the Merlin Sound ID app. Merlin detects the birds in your area and highlights the birds that are singing and calling. It’s a great way to learn bird calls/songs.

Merlin and I were having a grand old time listening to the Robins, Cardinals, Chipping Sparrows, and Wrens. Then, at 8:22pm, I looked down to see what else it had detected and I saw Barred Owl.

[Side note: 8/22 is a special date in my home because it’s the date my sister died of brain cancer in 1993.]

My heart seriously skipped a beat.

OMG! OMG! OMG!

I jumped out of my seat and didn’t know what to do. Then two Barred Owls gracefully, and oh, so quietly, glided onto the branch in my yard. In plain view. Yes, it was dark, but OMG! Was I really seeing what I was seeing? I had lived in this home for 28 years to the day, July 15. Never had an owl come into our yard.

We had heard owls hooting further in the woods, but never laid eyes on them. I even went searching for the owls in late spring of this year, but came upon an unpassable stream. I knew they were there high in the tree though. They probably took over a hawk’s nest, which is typical behavior for them.

Ever Heard of an Owl Box?

We let owls know they were welcome at our home. A few years ago, thanks to one of my friends, who knew I was a little obsessed with owls after a Snowy Owl photo outing in 2019, we installed a Screech Owl box high on one of our trees. She found it at a store and texted me to see if I wanted her to buy it. Yes, absolutely! Thank you, Mary Hettinger!

The Screech Owl has not shown up yet, but I’ve gotten some great squirrel images from that box. That’s a story for a different day.

Back to the Barred Owls…

Well, as you can guess, at this point, I knew what to do. I pleaded with the owls to stay put and I went inside to grab my camera and the beastly Sigma 150-600mm lens.

I knew the owls could slip away as quickly as they entered, and I had to document this sighting, no matter how dark it was.

Anyone who knows me well knows the infamous office window. I slung open the window, quietly, of course, and steadied my hands that were shaking with excitement to get at least one image of the owls.

CAMERA TIP

My ISO setting was at 3,200, but shutter was at 1/60 and f/stop was 6.0. In ideal circumstances, you want your shutter speed to be at least double the number of your lens length. I was at 500mm, so 1/1000 would be the minimum. Ugh! I knew this meant the image would have lots of noise, but I was fumbling to simply get a shot.

That was the first of my challenges. As I’m clicking away, the clicking suddenly stopped. The battery died. Whaaaaat? I quickly grabbed another. Fortuitous that I was in the office and the extra battery was right by my desk. Phew!

Click! Click! Click!

I headed outside to see what I could see. I set up my tripod and started clicking.

Whaaaaat? My memory card filled up.

Okay, okay. Stay calm.

Back inside I went. I fumbled around and found another card. By now it was around 8:30pm. When I peered through my camera and lens, I could barely see the owl in the shadows of the tree, let alone focus.

I grabbed a few more pix, then got some video as well. The owls were hissing back and forth. One of the owls glided down to the ground and returned to the branch. The second owl flew over to the tree behind our shed. They hissed back and forth.

OWL FUN FACT

From what I had learned the past few years, I knew juvenile owls hissed. They hiss to communicate with their siblings and their parents, to let them know their location, or where there is food. I had witnessed this behavior when I photographed Barred Owl siblings in Ashland in 2020.

Tune into the hissing of our backyard Barred Owl

Armed with this fun fact, I figured these were siblings that fledged from the nest I knew was there beyond the stream.

I did what I could to document this magical moment. Videos. Pix. Merlin app screenshots. I was on Cloud 9! The image quality was not up to my standards, BUT this was one of those, “the quality of the moment is more important than the quality of the images” experiences.

That was eight nights ago. And on each of the subsequent nights, the owls have come back to my yard. That first night, they stayed on the same branch for an extended period of time, almost the whole 20 minutes I observed them.

Owls Putting on a Show

A few nights ago, they started darting to the ground and flying back up into the tree. Snacks, perhaps?

One night, the owl flew down to my garden about 10 feet away from me. I have a healthy respect for Barred Owl claws, so I made my way inside.

Other entertaining antics:

Landing atop our swing. They’ll fly to the fence, then the ground, then the top of our swing. We can get a better view of them on that swing. Backstory: that swing is probably over 30 years old. We received it as a gift when our elderly neighbors passed away back in the day. They used to sit in that swing every night and take in the neighborhood sights and sounds. Their children passed it on to us and we have loved it.
Being feisty with one another. One owl knocked the other off the swing and sent him flying to a perch high in the tree.
Landing on our shed. This happened a couple of times. Maybe a better view?
Getting comfy on our fence. They come swooping into the yard and have landed on our fence closer and closer to our back door.

Each night, they came a bit later, around 8:40pm, so it was darker and much buggier.

But, last night, they came at 8:13pm. I invited my neighbor over to get a better look at the owl. Then it flew behind my shed into my other neighbor’s yard. I let her know the hissing she was perplexed by was owls communicating.

They were high up in the trees, so I moved to my other fence and passed a pint of blueberries that I had picked to my neighbor. As we stood there, one of the owls flew onto our other fence, a bit too close to my back door. The mosquitoes were harassing me. When I made a small move to get closer to the door, the owl moved to my neighbor’s front yard, hissing all the way. I raced for my back door.

I stood for a few minutes at my back door and grabbed some lousy quality (but glorious to me!) video of the owls hissing goodnight. I responded softly, “Goodnight, owls!”

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

When I got back inside after I saw the owls on the first night, I looked up what it meant. I had heard that according to Native Americans, an owl sighting was associated with death.

While that was consistent with what I found, I also learned there are some positive meanings to seeing an owl. Here are three examples from different sources.

“Seeing an owl at night symbolizes changing perception. You will see things in a different light, allowing you to gain wisdom and understand things that have eluded you before.”

“An owl is a symbol of wisdom and knowledge. It represents knowledge and mental transformation. Also, It's a symbol of a new beginning and transformation. An owl is a reminder that you may start a new chapter in your life.”

“The barred owl is often seen as the symbol for making peace within broken relationships. If you have been in a conflict or disagreement with someone close to you, the barred owl may appear to give you the sign to make peace with that person.”

Whatever it means, I feel blessed to be in the presence of these Barred Owls, Rob and Robin. And, no, they’re not too pleased with their parents giving them names that sound so similar. Ha!

BRB It’s 8:00pm and I must check to see if the owls show up.

Well, it’s 8:50pm now and not only did I see my trifecta of birds, but the owl did show up right around 8:22pm. He moved all around and landed in our yard, then on our swing. Too dark for pix, but I got some very fuzzy video. I just opened the office window and heard him hiss.

What an amazing experience to have these nightly visitors.

Thank you, Mother Nature!

Goodnight, owl!