Majestic/Tragic

This story started out as a magical experience: on Sunday night, we heard an owl calling, which we've never heard before. We looked out our back door, and there were TWO of these Great Horned owls. One was sitting quite upright, while the other was...not. They were in silhouette AND up high on top of our carport at the edge of the garage. The upright bird flew up to a tall tree, then back down, then up on our house, then back down to the other bird. At one point they had a sort of screechy conversation, so we thought perhaps this was mating behavior.

Then, it seemed as if the non-active one sort of hooched itself over onto our garage, the roof of which is lower than the carport. We could see its little tufts, but nothing else. It was after midnight, and dark, and we figured they would go about their business and fly away (though the behavior of this one did seem a bit odd, frankly).

The next day (yesterday), we looked to see if we could see the little tufts sticking up, which we couldn't--if we had been able to, I would have called a wildlife rescue organization as owls are mostly not out during the daytime if they are healthy. But I had a nagging feeling that we should check up on the roof, hoping/figuring nothing would be there. Unfortunately, this incredibly gorgeous creature was up there, dead.

So amazing. There are no obvious wounds or trauma--we did NOT examine it thoroughly, though--so we don't know what killed it. Today SD County Vector Control came to get it: because raptors are at the top of the food chain, when one is found dead they want to know what killed it; they are primarily concerned about West Nile, but I also think they want to see if it was poisoned, etc.

From absolute magic to heartbreak.

Even though this is so terribly sad, I feel privileged to have seen the two of them and to see this glorious creature up close. Rest in peace, lovely...