Have you noticed an abundance of owls in my art? I’m sure you’ve noticed that I almost always include a bird of some sort. Desert birds, migrating birds, carnivorous birds, seed gobbling birds but lately, I’ve become a little fixated on owls.
Why so many birds?
I love birds. All birds as it turns out. In fact, I have so many favorite birds that I can’t even narrow it down to a few so I just say I love all birds. I got my first bird when I was 11 years old. My grandma had a canary and a parakeet that I loved to hang out with when we visited her on weekends and when she passed, those birds became mine and from that time on, I have always had a bird or many birds. My love of birds extends way beyond birds as pets. I love the outside birds – including the birds who poop on everything, the ones who watch me plant seeds and then dig them up so I wonder why I didn’t get any plants out of them, and even the raptor birds who torment and feast on my songbirds.
How come owls?
The raptor birds include the Great Horned Owls who live in our neighborhood. They seem to come by just about every day and sometimes I see them and sometimes they leave me piles of feathers. I see them at dawn and dusk, I suppose because they’re nocturnal but it’s always exciting when I hear them calling in the desert. They come close to peer down at my tiny dogs who bark up at them like fools, and other times I see their shadowy silhouettes on top of the saguaros around our house. I’ve seen one sleeping in a giant mesquite tree during the day – he cracked one eye to see why I was staring at him and then went back to snoozing. But even when I don’t see or hear them, I know they’re around and I love that. Do you have an owl in your neighborhood?
