i've never seen one in the wild- lucky duck! but through rescue programs we have seen them up close and personal and they are adorable. it's interesting that he was curious about you and calm. the ones we'd seen through raptor rescue were as well, but i sort of assumed that was because they'd become accustomed to humans in their convalescence. neat to know they are naturally like that. saw a barred owl one day in the shadows about 15 feet away, up in a tree, and other kinds at a further distance, but never anything so close in the wild.

Hi Ginny! I was just thinking about you and bodiggly recently and hoping to see pictures of your beautiful gardens. Thanks!!! We all are having a hard time finding blooms, but together, we'll do fine this month and next month we'll try again and find more and more, I hope. Your amaryllis and salvia patch looks like spring has sprung! Fresh and beautiful and I love that unique trellis also. What will you have to climb that? Melissa, please do show your azaleas. The ones down here are almost in full bloom and they are having a great year. I guess it's been the cold winters the last two years. The colors are so welcome. Today was soooo beautiful I took a walk with the camera. Her is what I came up with. Not full blooms, but colors nonetheless: This shady corner in the back has this eranthemum pulchellum in full bloom now. The blue is almost electric. The picture focused on the begonias in the foreground, but what I was trying to show is the blue in the back. I have found this coleus to be exceedingly cold tolerant. One of two that overwinters in my yard. The others go with the first real cold. I love it and expanded last year in several places. I plan on expanding more this year as I love the bright pink. The picture is a bit overexposed as I shot in the direction of the sun, but I liked the effect nonetheless. I was going to wait to show the epidendrums when in full bloom, but the colors looked so nice today I couldn't resist to show how they're coming along. Anna

Kara, barred owls are a...ready?...HOOT to listen to, aren't they? With their very loud, "Who cooks for you, who cooks for YOU-aaaaallll?" And then the cackling battles they get into...reminds me of laughing hyenas in the African bush. They are very easy to call up, too. I have known people who could do a perfect call, and even I can call them, though my rendition is far from perfect. But I have had them answer me many times, and come swooping in to see if there was a strange owl in their territory that needed to be investigated. They are the only one of our owls that are often active in full daylight, and they are the only one with black eyes instead of yellow. They are big owls, and the lack of "ear" tufts makes them easy to tell apart from a great horned owl. They are definitely my favorite one. Except possibly for the cute little burrowing owls in the Cape Coral area. Glad you are enjoying them. They sure do spice up a summer night, don't they? Marcia

You did just fine, N&V. Sometimes you can throw a blanket over a bird when it lands on something, and you can carry them out that way. Sometimes a small bird can be caught in a net. And sometimes you just have to try to herd them towards an open door or window, as you did. Putting the water nearby didn't hurt, Carol, but it probably didn't help, either, unless the bird just needed a drink. They have no sense of smell whatsoever. (Only vultures and one or two types of seabirds have any sense of smell, as far as I know.) But anything to hide confusing windows that don't open and to help guide them to an opening to the outside is probably your best bet. Congrats on getting him outside without any apparent injury. If it was a small bird, btw, only about 8" tall or so, eastern screech owl it is. Marcia