A Woodsy Romance

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The past couple evenings while tending to the chickens and rabbits and whatever else needs to be done outside in the twilight (lots of shoveling), I've been treated to the start of the nightly chorus of love songs coming from the tall dark pines of the School Forest.  Every year at this time, a passionate romance is played out, starting at twilight and ending by dawn.

The Great Horned owls are back and the time is upon them to choose a mate and prepare for this year's clutch of owlets.  I never see them flying--mostly because it is dark when that is happening, and I'm inside where it is light and warm--but their calls echo across the frozen fields separating my place from their forest.  It starts with a couple of hoots as the daylight dwindles, and if I happen to be outside well after dark, I step into a world punctuated by hoots answering each other from tree to tree in the forest depths.

I love the sound of the annual Owl Romance--if they are thinking about owlets, that means that the winter is about at the halfway point and perhaps, just perhaps, spring won't be too much farther away.