Whoooo Likes Bagpipes?

(Post title by Chris)

I was sitting on the back patio last night, reading Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City (thanks for the recommendation, Sam!) when I noticed some movement on the lawn. It looked like a squirrel or some other small mammal, but when it suddenly flew into a tree, I realized it was an owl! In my yard! An red-phase eastern screech owl, to be exact. Much like this one (image lifted from jpmatth on Flickr):



I called Chris out, and we spent a good half-hour watching the owl swoop around the yard to the haunting strains of the bagpipes, until the fireflies started blinking and it got too dark for even our Totally Sweet Mack Daddy Binoculars to follow the owl's progress.

Also, when I went out this morning to check on the garden, there was fox poo by the tomatoes.

Cool: wildlife in the yard.
Not as cool: realizing that the owl caught at least five mice in the lawn in half an hour, and there were still enough left over for a fox. On the other hand, the mice attract some pretty cool predators, and I can live with that.