The "Almost" Owl!

I have been "stalking" a big, ole owl around the hillside for the past few months.  I love to watch it as it goes about its business in the late afternoon or early morning hours.  The bird has grown most used to me now and would rather peer at me through its large, orange eyes than fly to another tree. I guess it knows that I mean it no harm so it does not fear me in the least.  Each night, it flies into the large hickory tree near the front door.  From that perch, the owl can watch for mice that come out to nibble birdseed under the feeders.  I am sure that it has found this is the place for a smorgasbord of rodents!  A meal for the taking can be found each night!  At dawn, the bird heads for the depths of the creekbed.  There it will spend the day resting in some hideaway free from the pestering jays.

This morning, I was out and about just about dawn.  The weather report called for a hard freeze tonight so I needed to get an early start picking the citrus fruit.  The five kumquat trees, two grapefruit trees and three Satsuma trees all still had tons of fruit hanging from the limbs. There was no way I was going to let that go to ruin! I opted to start with the kumquats as they are the hardest to pick.  I dragged the stepladder under the first tree and climbed to the top.  While picking, I had plenty of time to look about the hillside.  From the vantage point atop the six foot stepladder, the view was spectacular.  The kumquat trees are right at the edge of where the hillside starts to drop off down to the creekbed.   All of a sudden I spied my owl!  Just down the way a bit, the bird sat atop of a dead Black Gum Tree.  The wind had knocked  off the top of the tree and left nearly twenty feet of a stump.  My friend, Owl, evidently had started its journey to the creekbed and became sidetracked.  Perhaps a mouse or rabbit caught its attention for it was sitting just as still as a statue!  My chance to get a picture seemed far more important than the kumquats so I hurried down the ladder and around the back of the canebrake.  From there, I could get a clear shot!  The sky hung heavy with dark clouds from the approaching cold front and combined with the darkness lingering yet from the early morn, the lighting for the photograph would not be the best.  I would try anyway.  The bird was cooperating at least!  It never moved!  I took several shots and then decided to press my luck!  Maybe, just maybe, I could get closer!  I eased up another thirty or so feet.  Hmmm..the bird stayed put!  I took a few more pictures before I realized something appeared to be amiss.  This bird was TOO still.  I boldly marched closer still.  Nothing.  Not one movement.  Not one twitch.  Nothing!

Yep!  I had bamboozled by a bird!  I was hoodwinked by a Hooter! I was outsmarted by an owl..or the lack of one!  My "owl" was not!  No owl..no bird..just a tree stump had been the focus of a photo shoot!  Well...it was dark, you see...and the lighting was really bad...the clouds left things rather hazy...my eyesight is failing...umm, I was still groggy from getting up so early..maybe?  Well, I did get a good laugh from all of my sneaking around the hillside after an "almost" owl!  Friend Owl probably got a hearty chuckle about this, too, if it was watching from its nest!