Night Visitor - Return of the Owl

When I first moved to my current home more years ago than I care to remember, it was very common to hear and see owls several times a month. Several years ago when a housing development was built further down, the owls disappeared.

During the past week, on three mornings when I departed for work I noticed a large form in one of the trees. As it is alway early (and now dark) when I leave, I sort of figured it was a hawk sleeping for the night.

Yesterday morning as I was backing out of the drive I once again noticed the form so pulled back up and cut the car off. I had my camera in the car and thought what the heck, it was worth a try. I put the ISO up to about 2400, rolled down the car window and attempted to focus. Insufficient light for the camera to focus so I switched to manual focus which was a pure shot in the dark so to speak.

My intent was not a high quality photo but to confirm what was in the tree. I suspected an owl based on the size and the movement of the head. I am extremely thrilled that one has returned and a little surprised at the location of what seems to be a favored spot. It is a fairly small dogwood tree and the preferred limb is no more than five feet off the ground.

Directly across from the tree, I have one of those octagonal shaped bird houses on a post. I went out late yesterday afternoon and strapped the trailcam to the birdhouse. I set it to put the date and time stamp on each photo to gather information on times and frequency of visits. If I leave out about two weeks, that should give me a good idea on how often it visits.