Today on the twitter I was intrigued with a tweet that announced there was some type of owl hanging out across the street from the Vancouver Public Library. An owl in the city? That’s crazy. I thought they were all shy and only lived in barns, hooted at midnight and were not for sale as pets after the Harry Potter movies came out.
I had to find out more. So I did a search and found photos other people took of him.
I decided that I needed to see the owl and headed over to Homer and Georgia to see if I could find him.
Did I find him? No. Not yet. But I did find this:
I guess it’s to send a very big envelope someplace. Do you see the lamp post in the back there? Yes! It was really that big.
According to those photos above, the owl is a Barred Owl and it looks like they can adapt to the city life. And if it’s rodents they’re after, this guy has hit a gold mine. It was just down the street where that rat ran across my foot while I waited for the bus. Ew. Where was he that day? I sure could have used him.
I’ll be listening out for his call, because I’ll keep going back there (across the street from the post office) until I see him. According to this Wikipedia entry,
The most common mnemonic device for remembering the call is “Who cooks for you, who cooks for you all.
Got it. Not a hooty owl.
I consoled my lack of owl viewage by taking a photo of this bird instead. I figured he was one step above a seagull.
Not seeing the bird of prey didn’t discourage me too much. It reminded me of a conversation my dad had with Mr. Swift after a day on safari in Africa. Please note: my dad does NOT like snakes. In fact, I think he may be an ophidiophobic.
My dad: Well, that was great. We didn’t see a single snake today.
Mr. Swift: Yes. That’s true. But how many snakes saw you today, Rod?
My dad: GULP.
Perhaps the owl saw me.
It could happen. And I’m going back tomorrow to see if he’s back. It said on one of the photos the owl is there regularly.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
We saw the owl last night on Granville at Robson! We were walking along the North side of Robson when he swooped below the bus lines, flew along Robson for a bit and landed high in a tree right opposite the bus stop. We watched him for about 10 minutes. He sat in his perch and watched the goings on below. When a passing cab blew an empty Tim Hortons cup and caused it to roll, his head swung around and he tensed up (I think he thought it was a rodent for a second). Other than that (and lots of head swiveling) he barely moved from his perch and we didn’t want to bother him so we moved on.
Guaranteed owl sitings. http://www.vancouverplus.ca/vancouver/venues/owl-orphaned-wildlife-rehabilitation-society
I have given you an award on my blog:
http://knitpurlknitpearl.blogspot.com/2010/03/beautiful-blogger.html
Have a nice day!
Oooh I can’t wait to see if you can spot him!
I gave you an award too beautiful lady!
http://www.biggirlfeet.ca/site2/wowee_its_friday_already_and_i_won_an_award/
He is disturbing the crows to no end, I think he might be ill.
That is so cool! I hope s/he is healthy and reducing the rodent population. I expect s/he may enjoy young crow to spice things up. I do hope you get your photo, Carol.