Our new friend, the Great Horned Owl...

in our tree, none-the-less! How COOL is that?! This tree is right off our backyard patio. The tree is visible from our kitchen sliding glass doors and from the window by our kitchen sink. We can also see the tree from the windows when we go upstairs to the kids' rooms. SO, it is perfect when our friend, Mr. Great Horned Owl, visits because we have three "viewing areas" from which to spy on him. This is the first picture we snapped of him on his first visit taken through the sliding glass doors from inside the kitchen. He is slightly right of center towards the top right corner of the picture. We could very easily see his huge yellow eyes, feathery tail, and pointed "ears."

In the second picture, the owl is looking at the two black birds that have perched themselves strategically in the nearby branches to SHRIEK their caws in warning that a predator is way too close for their comfort. They were going buzzonkers cawing at him. There must have been more than ten surrounding our tree safely screeching from our neighbor's roof. That was the only reason Fletcher and I found him!

Precious Noah was actually the first to take notice of the hubbub going on out our back door. He tuned in to the black birds cawing like crazy (surprisingly, I'd found a way to notice it with my ears but not my brain!) I heard them but didn't think through how unusual that was that a plethora of birds was screeching insanely in our backyard. Noah began to call back to them imitating them remarkably well! His little hand was just a'bangin' on the sliding door to let him out to investigate these birds he could see on our neighbor's roof and hear squawking. Fletcher and I rolled at Noah calling back to the birds in his own version of their angry caw!
This picture makes him look small. Not so! Online we read that the Great Horned Owl is a fierce bird of prey taking out other birds, SKUNKS, and even cats! Sometimes, they eat so many skunks that they start to smell like the musk of a skunk. Glad I don't smell like what I eat!
Cool view of his "horns."
Peek-a-boo, we see you! For many, many minutes! SO thankful all five kids got to enjoy watching him with me. Poor C. was at work. Maybe next time though...
Pretty neat visitor to have when the kids and I have been praying very specifically for wisdom!