Great Gray Owl

Are you in love with owls?  I never had been. Not until I went hunting north of the arctic circle, meeting up with my husband and hunting party did I find my love of such wonderful amazing creatures.  My mother came up to babysit the youngsters back in September 2008 or I wouldn't have been able to go at all.

After a day of scouting through swamps and hillsides for a giant moose, my husband and I came tracking through a burnout area.  As we made a turn in the trail, directly in front of us perched on the only branch of a blackened tree was the largest and my most fierce owl I had ever seen in my life.  In fact, I had never seen an owl THIS close ever. The branch was just 6 feet off the ground and just about 20 feet in front of us. The owls hypnotizing eyes were a piercing lime green.  We just stood there and stared in awe.  I had left my camera at camp another half mile away but tried as hard as I could to etch the beauty of the owl in my mind.  The owl, so close so we could see every detail, had amazingly perfect feathers, not one out of place and ruffed out to make himself appear as large as possible, with so many fascinating shades of gray.  It looked to be the size of a healthy toddler, I mean one of my toddlers, a kid way too big for his age.  He seemed to say to me, "This is MY tree, MY trail, My woodland, and I am guardian." When the spell was broken we quietly left, one step at a time, slowly.  I fell in love with owls that day.

Here is something neat I found on another blog.  It is a calendar of owls by many different artists.  Just select 12 of your favorite owls and then download. It creates a pdf calendar to print.  Click the picture below to make an owl calendar, the kids will love this!!