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Friday, January 30, 2026

A good omen

I have a sister who considers herself "fey" in the sense that she is aware of beings on the other side of the veil. She will chide them when she is looking for a lost object. After scolding them for their unwanted playfulness, she will often find the object she is looking for right beneath her hand.

I do not judge. I have always been an insensitive clod. Maybe they try to talk to me and I am too thick to hear them. Frankly, one of my superpowers as a parent was selective loss-of-hearing. Sometimes things work much more smoothly if your hearing, as a parent, is not too good.

Canary in the coal-mine

I consider small raptors to be an excellent indicator species. They are near the top of the food chain so toxins bio-accumulate and local issues are magnified. Their range is not large enough for surrounding areas with better environmental health to mask your parcel's deficiencies.

If you have an abundance of small owls, kestrels, Accipitersswallows, swifts and bats then you are probably doing a lot of things right. I am particularly fond of owls and bats. They are working while I am sleeping.

Today I was walking in the Eaton Rapids orchard with Zeus when I looked over and saw this girl/guy perched in a hazelnut bush.

Tentatively identified as an Eastern Screech Owl by Tireless Machias.

 
I was probably five feet away from her and it was in broad daylight. She let me pull out my phone and take a couple of pictures.

Winning the lottery could not make me any happier. 

10 comments:

  1. I'm surprised you even saw him/her. Very good camouflage!

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  2. You have good vision. Most people would have never see that. I'm impressed. ---ken

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  3. Very nice! We have a 'few' bats in the neighborhood, but not many.

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  4. Back in the dark days of covidiocy, when travel was constrained and mingling looked at with suspicion, my wife and I spent many afternoons sitting around our fire pit with a glass of singlemalt , watching two Great Horned owls and their fledglings. Neither before nor afterwards have we seen them so active in the middle of the day, 20 years away. It was a gift.

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  5. The fact that the owl let you get that close, is proof you're fey, you're just at a different frequency of the spectrum.
    I can't detect them either, but at 75, I've seen and experienced some "unlikely shit" that convinces me that "They" are around.
    My platoon of special forces, Guardian Angels, got my mother's attention a long time ago. It's not that I'm accident prone, it's that I'm activity prone. Hence, shit happens and I'm incredibly lucky, or "covered" (blessed?).

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    1. I know what you mean. I'm not a religious person, but when I am in the woods, I diffinatly experience a type of spirituality. Very mind calming. "They" are there for sure.

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  6. Very cool! I also like owls and bats. We have Barred Owls here, and I have heard Great Horned, or Grey on occasion. I would love to see and hear a Screech. I believe they are somewhat tolerant of people, and will allow approach, especially in the day.
    One spring we had a barred fledgling hanging around, screaming for food. He was annoying after awhile. The parents would feed him/her, but he still kept whistling and calling.
    Southern Nh

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  7. I remember as a kid, watching condors soaring 10,000 feet in the air in vee formations over northern California.

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