F ³: Bird Brained

I recently provoked some amusement from an old highschool friend by announcing that I have reached the bird feeder phase of my retirement. I’m on my third. (Feeder, not friend.) The first was taken out by a squirrel and the second was damaged (we think) by deer. So far the third one is going strong but we bring it in every night now. That’s when we were losing the most seed, plus portions of the feeder itself.

I actually pondered getting one of those front door camera devices, but for the bird feeder. 

But this post is not really about bird watching, as educational as that has been for me. No, it’s about this guy:

The other evening this photo leapt out at me as I scrolled on Twitter. The poster claims this is an owl that has been rained on. I am not sure that’s absolutely true (try searching “wet owls” on Google images) but this bird simply charms me. I think this photo needs a caption. So far, this is my favorite:

The popular social media account  @effinbirds might have a few more colorful words to say on this topic.

Owls seem to be social media darlings. Surely you’ve taken a gander at those unexpectedly long legs.

Or a baby owl sleeping.

All of this provides a new twist on owls for those of us of a certain age who were raised believing that owls had exceptional intelligence but they couldn’t spell very well.

I’ve never seen an owl up close as far as I know - - maybe at a nature center? - - but I certainly have caught the “look at this cool photo” bug of late. There’s just something about them that makes you stop and say, “Who knew?”

Can I interest you in sending me your captions for any of these photos (which were not taken by me, nor are owned by me, nor can I find information for attribution) in the comments section on Facebook? I know there’s a lot of heavy things going on in the world right now but I’m attempting to take a teeny-tiny break today.

Need some inspiration? This should get you started.