Here is the story:
My back yard is pretty heavily wooded with pines and hardwoods. The average age of the hardwoods is about 40 years. Beyond my back yard is a field that is part of a right-of-way that is 200 feet wide.
At 6AM this morning, a flock of crows opened a cacophony in my back yard. Now this is kind of odd. I have not had crows in my back yard since about 3 years ago when I picked 3 off with my air rifle. I keep the crows run off from my back yard because they will eat the babies of the songbirds and sometimes even the smaller songbirds.
Crows are smart. How smart? Well, I retrieved my air rifle and stepped out of the screened porch with it down along my leg. As I raised it to take a shot at the nearest offender, the entire flock rose up and flew away. So, I went back to my bedroom to get ready for work. Five minutes later, the crows were back. Now, I thought this was very unusual, so I went back outside to see what was up. I figured that they were after some predator like a cat or a snake.
As I scanned the yard and didn’t find anything, I looked up expecting to see a hawk. I didn’t see any hawks, but lo, and behold, I saw the silhouettes of three owls! It turns out that it was a mother and two fledgling Great Horned Owls. Attached is a picture of the babies.
My wife continued to watch them through the entire day. The picture was taken about 3:30 PM. When I arrived at 6PM, they were still there.
Isn’t God wonderful to give us gifts like this in the middle of suburbia?