Okay, ridiculous title, I know, but I feel like my titles to my posts are always so BORING. So, I went with it.

This post is going to be almost as ridiculously short as my title, but I thought I’d share anyway–I SAW OWLS IN REAL LIFE! I know this shouldn’t seem like a big deal, but for some reason it is! I had never really thought about it before, but I’ve never seen a real owl before.

Daniel and I were on a hike, again (we only made it two miles this time. sigh), and heard this strange bird call. Then we heard another one that sounded, you guessed it, like a “whooooo.” And then like a trilling response call, and we saw a large bird fly across the river we were hiking next to and land in a tree a little ways away. We both stared at each other, and were like, “Were those…owls?” It was at that moment I realized it would be super cool if they were. Dusk was falling so we couldn’t see super clearly, but we were pretty hopeful.

We made our way closer, and heard both calls again, slowed down, and shortly after, a large bird flew way up over our heads, landed in a tree, and, sure enough, it was two owls sitting there, chatting away as though he’d come by for coffee. I didn’t even know owls could make that many different sounds! Of course, as soon as I took out the camera, they sat there as silently as the fake owls we keep in our yard.

Based on youtube videos, I think it was an Eastern Screech Owl and/or the great horned owl – between the two of them, they made both sounds that youtube indicates.

Anyway. That’s all. I just wanted to share that I finally saw owls.