I awoke in the middle of the night last night to the "whoo, whoo, whoo" of an owl in our cottonwood tree. We have a 30 year old tree that hubby bought a couple of years after we bought our house and over the last 35 years, we've had a family of orioles live in it and various owls stop by overnight or over the course of a few nights. We always welcome the owls as they clean out the critters in the neighborhood. A few years ago, we had a huge infestation of tree rats (our neighbors on both sides all have grapefruit trees) and one time, while I was talking on the phone with a friend, I observed a tree rat walking across the street, from the neighbor's yard to OUR YARD by using the telephone wires! ACK!!! Fortunately, now that we have 3 outdoor cats, our critter problem is solved, but I have no idea what is going on with "critters" in the neighborhood. At least they stay OUT of our yard! So, having an owl around is a good thing!!! This owl is at the Living Desert Reserve in Palm Desert, CA. There was another owl in the enclosure and she was on a nest on the ground!
