Interlopers

Barred owlet: Photo: JSR

Interlopers

We think of it fondly as our very own
little piece of Paradise. It's where our home
was built decades ago, it's where we nurse
our garden, find our respite, our purpose
in life but to enjoy our privileges and we
most certainly do. From our backyard the
soothing query of an owl often floats over
from the nearby forest at night and when
we trace pathways through the forest in
our many leisure hours then too we can
hear them. We are alerted to their presence
when a murder of crows occasionally 
create a pandemonium of circling black
and raucous condemnation, looking up to
see a great barred owl unconcernedly
seated on a bough of a venerable old pine
and nor is it only crows but cardinals too
circle an owl's presence with distraught
cries imploring it to vacate its perch. As 
for we humans the very sight of such a
regally imposing creature tilting its great
head to watch keenly as we stride past with
our two small companion dogs creates an
internal stir of admiration and caution lest
it swoop to claim one of ours, formidable 
predator that it is, on the watch for rabbits
squirrels, mice while parenting its owlets.