Moi aussi, although it wasn't my first Barred encounter. I have seen a Barred owl at Lynde Shores and south of there on Hall's Road three times over the last few years. Yes, Lynde Shores is not too far away for me, although I wouldn't go there frequently, especially since there is a parking charge in addition to the fuel for a round trip. They used to have machines that accept cash but I think that they have probably now been replaced with QR-code scanners, which means you need a cell phone, so that's out. I'm not at all happy about leaving a digital trail everywhere that I go. It's not that the cops will find me, it's that they could find me. I haven't made a donation to the police in quite some time so they are probably pissed at me. So far, parking at the foot of Hall's Road doesn't involve parking meters. At least not yet, but they'll get there eventually.
My first Barred owl encounter occurred in Colonel Danforth Park (south of Lawrence Avenue). It was quite memorable because the owl was flying northbound right down the middle of the main drag, gradually losing altitude, heading right toward me like a fighter plane ready for a strafing run. I really thought that my number was up at that moment. It careened over my head, swooped up and landed on a branch behind my left shoulder about three meters away from where I was standing. I said, "How do you do". It said, "who". I said "you, of course". Neither of us said anything for a few seconds, but my mind was desperately working out a way to slip into the who's-on-first routine. Before I had a plan to show how stupid I was the owl came off its perch and plummeted to the ground at a 45-degree angle as sudden as a fart. The owl that swept in so gracefully was not at all interested in me, (must have been a female again), but it had apparently spotted a mouse, or something rodent-like present in the weeds just a couple of meters from me. Some people think that I look a bit like a ferret so I thought it was interested in me. Anyway, that was my first Barred owl...and a beautiful specimen she was. If that same scenario had played-out with a Great Horned owl I might surely have had a heart attack, if I were prone to that sort of thing. Now that I'm a vegan perhaps the old ticker will do a Timex on me and just keep on ticking.
