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| Great Horned Owl |
Right after the Thanksgiving holiday of 2018, I flew to LA to visit
family for a few days, which was fun but exhausting because of the 24/7 noise,
traffic, and hubbub of that giant city.
So as soon as I arrived back at my peaceful and quiet little corner of
Arivaca, I headed to the couch to rest my tired body and brain.
No sooner had I sat down when my
husband Uno called to me from the sunroom, “You gotta come out here, now”.
Thankfully I heeded his call,
because as soon as I turned the corner, I saw it.
A magnificent Great Horned Owl, perched on the electric wire
30 ft away, and staring straight down into the glass door of the sun room.
As we stood there in awe looking up, it
continued to gaze down silently and almost unblinking, for several minutes.
Uno and I didn’t say a word to
each other because no words were needed.
It was the best “Welcome home to Arivaca” greeting
ever.
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| Barn Owl in flight |
This experience also reminded me of a different owl
encounter that happened here in my garden last year.
I have a special fondness for Barn Owls because the Seattle
Park I worked in for 12+ years had a thriving population of nesting pairs, and
I developed a deep appreciation for them through many hours of observation and
study.
I might even say love, because
I find myself actually missing those owls now that I only have a chance to see
them during my summers in the northwest.
Anyway, one afternoon last fall, while standing in our newly-built
native plant garden and admiring the beauty of the Allepo Pine tree that’s been
growing here for many years, I decided to go stand underneath it.
As soon as I got there and started
gazing up at its branch structure, a Barn Owl that had been roosting there saw
me and took off so close over my head that I felt its wind.
I couldn't help but feel that
this owl's choice of roosting spots was some kind of “seal of approval” being given to our new garden that day.
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| Little Owl, "sidekick" of the Goddess Athena |
I’m not alone in considering the presence of an owl to be
some kind of sign.
Owls have been
a part of many legends for people and cultures all over the world.
The ancient Greek and Roman goddesses
of wisdom, Athena and Diana, were both associated with owls, and to this day
throughout Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, there are
beliefs about the supernatural powers of owls related to prophecy and
protection, as the vessel for souls of those who have passed away from this
earth, and as deliverers of healing, birth and death, dream messages, good or bad
luck, and even weather prediction.
It’s interesting to me that
with all our differences, we human beings have many common threads when it
comes to our relationship with owls, and our instinctual feeling that they are much
more than just a bird.
Photo Credits:
Great Horned Owl by Brandan Lally, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
Barn Owl in flight by Peter K. Burian,
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
Little Owl by Arturo Nikolai, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
