Things That Go Bump In the Night

Holy Cow!!

Tonight has been amazing! Unfortunately I have no pictures to show of it, but let me tell you a bit about it.

Nick (my ex bf's current bf) came over at like...7:30pm because he was bored or whatever...honestly, I wasn't really paying attention to the time until I noticed I was a bit tired (I have been doing laundry all night). At 1:00am I suggested he go home...sounds exciting, right?

So he went to go get in his car, then randomly he comes back inside saying something about a big shadow and glowing eyes and freakin out a bit...I told him it was probably a coyote and decided to grab my camera and investigate with him.

At first, I thought he was imagining things...he'd said something about hearing something scream and thought that it may have been a cougar (this amused me, but I was skeptical)...after about 15 minutes, we sat down on some creasote (not sure on the spelling) beams and waited to see if we see or hear anything. I was about ready to call it quits and was a tad disappointed, when we started to hear branches snap and leaves shuffle. I was so excited that I didn't even notice that I was holding my breath until I got light headed xD

So we are sitting there on these beams listening to the twigs snaping and the soft shuffling of the leaves, when we heard the unmistakable sound of a doe bleating. DEER!! (hahaha Nick was scared of a deer)...so we were focusing on the direction of the sound of the deer moving, not really paying attention to the rest of the woods around us...when we heard this blood curdling scream about 10 feet in either direction of us (I swear it was in stereo)...I got goosebumps and froze in my tracks. We stood still for a few minutes and started to breathe easy when we heard the same horrifying scream. I started thinking it may have been an injured rabbit (it sure sounded like it) and then started wondering what was hurting said hypothetical rabbit...and was about to freak out when OUT OF NOWHERE this HUUUUUGE Owl flew about 5 feet from us. It was an amazing sight!! This owl had, at least, a 3.5-4ft wingspan, was about 2 feet in length and was ash grey. It flew past us again and back into the fir tree it was roosting in, screamed again, and moved to a higher branch. When it took off again, it wasn't alone...a slightly smaller owl of the same color was flying with it. After they were out of sight, and after laughing nervously at the fact that we nearly shit ourselves, we turned out attention back to the deer....

Mind you, it's 2:30 am and we have no lights, other than the flashes for my camera...

We crept closer to where the sound of the deer had been coming from and I was tapping the button on my camera to keep the light available when Nick spotted a doe sticking her head up over some brush, looking straight at us. I tried to take a picture, but try as I might, my camera would NOT cooperate with me. Nick, in a moment of sheer brilliance, slid the switch on my flash to "TEST" about 5 inches from my face, illuminating everything around us in a bright, blinding light for a split second, then returning to total darkness. I wanted to punch him in the face, but rather decided that, until I could see again, Nick needed to remain conscious. It took about 10 minutes for me to stop seeing random orange rectangles so that I could walk without relying on him leading me.

After we got back inside, I decided to google a description of the owls we saw. The only owls large enough to fit the discription of the owls we saw (that inhabit the pacific northwest) are Great Horned Owls:


Great Horned Owls are large owls -- Males are about 18 to 25 inches long and have a wingspan between 35-60 inches. They have light gray to dark brown feathery ear tufts (which is how they ended up with the name 'Horned' owl).
They have horizontal breast barring with gray to brown, mottled bodies. Their face has a dark outline with a lighter brown center and sometimes a white bib under the chin. They have sharp, black talons and beaks.
They have large, round gold eyes. Like all owls, their large eyes cannot move. To look up, down or to the side the owls must move their entire heads and are able to turn their necks 180 degrees.
There are some differences in coloring of the Great Horned Owls, depending on where they live. But their ear tufts make them easy to identify.
Females are similar in description, only larger.


So naturally, I'm assuming that the larger owl we saw was a female and the smaller was a male.


Anyway...it's 5am now and I'm going to get some shut-eye.

Thanks for Reading!


p.s. Nick is passed out on the futon in the guest room...I'm gonna go color on him with a sharpie...