The Morning Porch » screech owl

Saturday November 06, 2010

Dave Bonta — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 11:57:27 +0000

Almost light, and a screech owl still calls from down in the hollow—that sepulchral whinny. One croak of a crow stops it cold.

Dave Bonta — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 10:38:06 +0000

Ground fog forms at dawn in the bottom corner of the meadow and quickly dissipates. The screech owl’s quaver gives way to soft thrush calls.

Dave Bonta — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:35:16 +0000

Thick fog prolongs the early-morning light for hours. The cardinal sings spring while a screech owl quavers over the luminous snow.

Dave Bonta — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:44:43 +0000

The soft trills of a screech owl an hour before dawn. I sip my coffee as quietly as I can.

Dave Bonta — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:03:09 +0000

A screech owl adds its quaver to the minimal dawn chorus: mourning dove coos, finch and sparrow chirps. Snow and highway noise on the wind.

Dave Bonta — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:50:01 +0000

Buds swell on the ornamental cherry beside the porch, unaware that porcupines have girdled the trunk. April Fool! You’re dead.

Dave Bonta — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 14:31:33 +0000

A warm morning—53°F. A Cooper’s hawk calls, a screech owl trills, but the squirrels go on rummaging through the leaf litter. I spy a gnat.

Dave Bonta — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:56:17 +0000

Right after a mourning dove’s song, a screech owl trills at the very same pitch. The sun floats free of the horizon and into the bluest sky.

Dave Bonta — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 12:59:35 +0000

Titmouse, screech owl, pileated: three ways to ululate. Orange-bellied clouds below the eaves which are festooned with dangleberries of ice.

Dave Bonta — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 13:23:48 +0000

A screech owl’s trill, the maniacal cry of a pileated—everything sounds like a portent when the sky’s such a lurid red behind the trees.