Monday, February 14, 2011

An Exciting Night in the Baca House

We had some excitement around the house last night.  Bobbi walked into the office in our home.  And found this.  Yes.  A young owl had somehow come in through the doggy door.  Or was escorted in by Hermes and Ajax the cats.

He was a beautiful young bird with some down still on him.  But he could fly very well.  He went back and forth between a plate given me by the Mayor of Alburquerque, Spain and one of my Golden Ape Awards for best Television news story of the year back in 1972 at Channel 7.

I think this is a barn owl but anyone who wants to make a comment to correct me should do so.  He was not afraid of us.  He just watched me and Bobbi as we tried to figure out what to do.  I took down the doggy door from the sliding glass door in hopes he would fly out.  He made no move after 15 minutes so I went to the garage to get my fishing net to try and catch him for release.  When I returned he was gone.  On the wing and safe I hope.  Such beauty in our wildlife.

The cats were playing dumb on whether they did bring him in.  There were no feathers around so who knows? It does upset us they may have brought him in and it is one of the problems of indoor-outdoor cats.

3 comments:

Bosque Bill said...

Jim, looks like a Western Screech-Owl to me. A common species in our area, though usually only glimpsed at twilight. This small owl is almost certainly an adult as it is several months before young would be flying.

Quite an amazing bird to find in your house!

Zuzu Petals said...

I like it perched on your APE award and how banged up the award is. My husband, Karl F. Moffatt, has a similarly banged up APE; it still has it's cigarette, though.

Jim Baca said...

I have two other APE statues that still have their cigarettes.