More Late Night Parties...

I woke this morning with deep, dark circles under my eyes.

Why?

The truth is I didn’t get much sleep because I hosted a rager last night.

I hadn’t planned on it. I haven’t had such a wild party in years. Honestly, I’d envisioned a quiet evening—but the partygoers just showed up and took over. Literally.

And they were loud, rousting me from my slumber with a bevy of strange and wondrous sounds.

Aren’t you dying to know the scoop????

Well, as some of you know, we live in a neighborhood that is heavily wooded. Our property (just call it “Wild Kingdom”) is full of trees—and as such we witness an almost daily parade of critters from bunnies and squirrels to deer foxes, and coyotes.

But last night, with a full moon in the dusty sky, our house was undoubtedly surrounded by a parliament of owls.

Yes, a parliament. (I looked it up.)

What started as a single “hoot” became a “hoot, hoot, hoot” then a distant “hoooooooot,” with different owl calls coming in stereo from myriad directions, for HOURS throughout the night.

Now on occasion, I have heard owls—but I thought they, like the kids who sit solo at outlying lunch tables, were loners—and I definitely heard several in the mix last night. What was happening? It was a rare and mysterious.

So, after I grabbed my AM coffee, my next stop was Google.

According to an article, “Hoots Signal Beginning of Mating Season,” by Cody Gilbert, January and February is the time of year when owls, like the Great Horned Owl and the Great Gray Owl, “have their mind on starting a brood.” (Most birds wait till it warms up for some spring lovin’, but not owls.)

After further reading, I learned there are 18 species of owls in North America, and 13 have been documented in Colorado. Of these, the Great Horned is the most common—likely the same ones scattered throughout my trees last night.

Who knew?

As I sipped my coffee, in wonderment, I also learned that owls don’t generally migrate. That means that not only do I have resident partiers, but in a few months, we may have a little owlet infestation on our property. That is good news for the Palermo house.

Not only are they cute, but don’t forget they eat rodents, bugs, snakes and BATS.

Those are my kind of house guests! Wahoo! Party away! I’ll deal with the under eye circles.

So, “hoot, hoot!” I’m in pursuit of more knowledge about the wide spectrum of animals that live in Colorado—the species, their rituals and habits. I learned SO MUCH about owls this morning—prompted by a simple (though unusual) soiree at my place last night.