The joy of community owl-spotting

Good morning, DMV! It’s Thursday, March 19.

My husband was out on a walk near home Saturday evening when he saw a guy pointing his phone toward the creek to capture images. My husband went to look, and it was a barred owl, sitting on a rock in the creek.

I love seeing owls, and it has been many a moon since I last saw one. Of course, the day I decline an evening stroll with my husband, he sees one up close. He sent me and my daughter videos of the owl on a rock in the neighborhood creek, then up in a tree.

The next afternoon, he went out for an errand (to pick up a puzzle from a little free library!) and came home excited. He had run into our neighbors as they were heading out to see the owl! They knew where it was hanging out. We grabbed our binoculars and fast-walked out to search.

We found our neighbors. They told us where to stand, pointed us in the right direction — and there it was, pretty well camouflaged in the middle of a grove of trees. So well hidden, in fact, that when curious passersby asked what we were looking at, my husband tried to direct their gazes, but they just could not see it.

It was about 4 p.m. The owl looked sleepy, barely able to keep its eyes open. It lazily glanced our way, then turned away.

Our neighbor Aster Winship — a 15-year-old ninth grader at Montgomery Blair High School — was there with her camera. She had seen the owl a few times in this spot and sent me this photo she took a couple of weeks ago.

“Someone had pointed this owl out to my mom on an earlier walk … This photo was actually taken the second time I went to see the owl, when it kindly decided to pose for me somewhere where it was not completely hidden by tree branches,” Aster wrote to me in an email.

“It's sometimes very hard to spot, but it helps to know that it's usually in the same area. There must be a nest around there, but I haven't been able to find that!”

I hope to see it again. My husband and I also want to return one day when the owl is not there, so we can try looking at the base of the tree, below its perch, for pellets to see what it has been eating.

What’s the excitement in your neighborhood? We’re about to enter a warmer spell, according to forecasts. Share your recent photos of life in the DMV here.

Sunday 5-10 p.m. — The Extended Play dance party. Many of you have asked me about dance parties. I love this one.

🦉