Return of the Owl

Today my owl returned. J woke me this morning saying, "Come here, quick," and led me to the window, told me to look down by the bird feeder and........nothing. We looked up into the big old maple trees across the lane and there she was.

I didn't get a picture this time, but here is one of her from last winter:

Last year she came only during snow storms but today is clear and sunny. Noticing in this photo it is clear and sunny, but when she first showed up it was snowing, then cleared.

Today she moved to an upper branch of the tree and stayed there for about 4 to 5 hours. I watched her through binocs and her eyes were closed most of the time. Every once in a while one eye would open just a little. So we are still wondering was she napping or pretending and keeping an eye out for a possible lunch. Although she had plenty of chances to catch a lunch as many blue jays and red squirrels came very close to her on branches nearby and taunted her with their chittering trying to drive her away. She would just look at them and turn away and ignore them. We decided she couldn't really be that hungry.

After about 3 hours or so J said he had to go out and retrieve his trophy cam that he puts out at night to catch the deer and that he would probably scare the owl off.  He walked right by the tree and right under her out and back. She just watched him but didn't move.

Then a couple hours later he decided he had to go back out and put down the deer feed before he went off to work. She watched him go out again and disappear into the woods. A few minutes later I looked out and she was gone. Hoping she comes back.