owl of the moment... 10 February 2012.

every night.... I keep hearing... pretty much consistently almost form when I go to bed.... to when I wake up... and at times in between.... the owl hoot hotting from the dark... somewhere in the woodland across the road... sometimes in my garden... some say they are harbingers of the worse to come.... I don't think that... I find it comforting... exciting that this mysterious disembodied sound fill the night as it does.... once, long ago.... I was in a pine forest in the mountains here bivvying (sleeping out under the stars in only a sleeping bag, for those who haven't heard the word before).... and it was getting to about 2am... i had been laying there staring up from the leaf litter into a gap to the stars between the silhouetted spikes of the tall, proud conifers... when a few feet behind me.... out of the pitch... as though out of nowhere... came a crash that cracked the stillness... I turned quickly to see what it was... not even thinking what it might be... and there I lay face to face... with a tawny owl... which had just landed on some prey... a small bank vole I think perhaps... I stared at it... my heart pounding... it stared at me probably as surprised as me to see each other there... then took off on silent flicks of its softened wings leaving just a few dead leaves to fall to the floor again... a moment indeed.