Update from the Wolery…episode 16d

Our owls have radically changed their routine!  For just over a month they have delighted us with their comings and goings, chatter, and graceful flight each night.  As dusk has arrived on the last two evenings they have been absent.  Not to engage in hyperbole, but this almost feels like waiting for a late teenager out with the car……..  Watching until dark the first evening, we blamed their absence on the wind that had picked up just at dusk.  Thankfully, during the night we heard their raspy call as they flew past our bedroom windows.  Last evening we repeated the same vigil in the stillness, without wind – surely they would be back to the old routine.  Watching again, this time until well after dark………..nothing!  Upstairs, several hours later, we heard them loudly proclaiming their presence as they both flew in to sit atop the box.  The emotion…..relieved that they are home or annoyed that they made us worry…………

perhaps if they left a note explaining their schedule….

I think I will put out some writing materials….

Illustration by E.H. Shepard