I Spy A Golden Eye

I may feel like I'm not as sharp as I used to be in so many ways (I word search, am tired way too often, can be distracted by the multitasking overwhelm that modern life has become) BUT when I'm in nature, I'm highly alert. Every formerly dull sense is tuned in to the smallest of things. If something flickers in the lake, if there is a small movement in the trees, if there is a barely audible cry I pick up on it like I have SUPERPOWERS!

So I was out walking one early summer afternoon in The Park and there was the tiniest rustling.  I wasn't quite sure what had gotten my attention, just that it had. There was a ghostly sense of something, almost imperceptible really. I could not be sure I wasn't just mistaken. I squinted into the blue sky and the mass of newly full, vibrant lime green leaves and even with glasses on, could not make anything out. 

I just took a picture of the general area that got my attention, figuring if there was something there I might see it if I went home and enlarged the pic.
Sure enough, the below is what I got when I cropped it!!!!!

How cool is that? Owls are so mysterious, and usually are heard and not seen. I've just recently seen owls up close --which is saying a lot considering I've lived half a century. I saw one flying out of the smoke when I was stranded on the side of the one and only road during a giant fire on the island of Maui, the night before I eloped. Under the circumstances, I considered that it might be a spirit totem or something (either that or the prenuptial fire was a sign, lol). It had a very long wingspan but an abnormally large head for a regular bird, which until then were the only ones I'd seen. The eyes were so large and dark, and while all it's feathers stretched out when it was in flight, the fluffiness of it's head remained the same and that accounted for the proportion. It's one of those moments I'll never forget. 

Flash forward two years and I was face to face with several owls at The Center which you can read about HERE for starters (or simply click on the tag OWLS to your left on this page...).

Maybe one of you can identify what kind of owl it is. I know what kind it isn't. Not a screech owl... not a barn owl, not a great horned owl.  Any birders out there know?