Great Horned Owl!

I saw one!  My first!

I was just getting set for bed, turning stuff off, closing up the house, that sort of thing, when I heard some hooting.  Hoo hoo ... hoooo.  And again.

So I looked out, and around, and there, big as a hawk, in my neighbor's tree, was a ... well, a big something looking very solid in the snow glow.  So I got my binoculars, and had a good long look (Fortunately, it was a patient owl).  And I could distinctly see the "horns" or "ear tufts" or whatever real birders call them. 

I thought about getting my camera out, but with a big enough lens to see the bird well, it would have needed an exposure time WAY longer than the bird would have been still for (it moved its head as I watched).

So I just looked with my binoculars, and then when I went to try a different way to look, it flew off.

Still, my first Great Horned Owl!  And it was BIG!

(And it was sitting in a tree in my neighbor's yard, the same neighbor who sometimes lets her cat out, and whose cat sometimes comes over and hangs out near my feeders, though I've asked her not to let it.  It's not worth making a big deal of, but I hope the cat doesn't meet the owl, because the owl would win, I bet.)

The cat guest I have at my house, though, joined me at the window to look out, though I don't think she saw the owl, and I'm sure glad she wasn't outside to see it up close!