Hooty-Hoo?

Tonight while I was sitting in my studio addressing postcards, I had the window open because the temperatures outside are pretty mild, and it gets warm up here, since it is tucked away on the 3rd floor. It was already dark outside and I had been sitting here for about a half an hour, when I heard a sound sort of like a rusty "aunk" (or a croak)  punctuate the darkness. It repeated several times, then I heard the whoo hoo hoo of the Great Horned Owl. Both of these sounds were coming from the pasture of our neighbors next to our property line. It was a male and female Great Horned Owl calling back and forth to each other! I have heard them do this before, and this is the time of the year the male starts staking out its territory. The pair will be monogamous and raise young in January. Here is what the owls calling sounds like, although the ones I heard were closer, so the sound was bolder.  I went downstairs and John and I went out on the back porch to listen; they called back and forth for quite a while.

Our daughter was awakened one night last year with a pair of owls doing the same thing in her back yard, only she wasn't sure at all what was making the croaking sound! 

The title of today's post is a nod to Gomer Pyle. He used to say "hooty hoo" when he tried to sound like an owl while he was on the Andy Griffith show, if any of you are old enough to remember!

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!