Sunday, December 25, 2011

Christmas Owl or Hawk?

Hi All!  I suspect by this time, many of you are all snuggled in for the evening relaxing after a long day of Christmas celebrations.  Some of you may still be enjoying celebrating with family or friends or maybe just resting in between more family visits. 

We have had quite a whirlwind of activity around here that has come and gone quicker then a blink of an eye.  Not the way I really like to celebrate Christmas but I guess that's the way it goes sometimes and I am very thankful for all the blessings of the last two days!

I really want to share a photo of one interesting visitor we had this Christmas morning. It's not the first morning we have seen him, but this was the first morning we were able to get a photo of him before he flew off and before we realized the camera battery needed recharging yet again. 

Just what is this interesting bird?

It has been visiting us quite a bit for a few weeks now.  It likes to sit perched on our fence by the pool though we do not ever see it going towards the water in the pool.  It is usually just looking out at the woods.  We had been thinking it was an owl.  You cannot tell in this photo but if you saw a full frontal view it has a very round head on a roundish body with large round eyes like an owl.  But after looking in a book we have on birds we are thinking it might be a type of hawk, maybe?  

I was thinking how lucky we were to have seen an owl on Christmas day!  That is, until I read how so many of the owl legends out there do not associate owls with goodness.  In fact many of them seem to associate the owl with much darkness.  Yikes!  

I would really love to hear what this bird is if you recognize it! Also I would also love to hear any kinder, gentler or more positive stories associated with owls.  Seriously!  I've always thought they were fascinating.  I can't seem to find too much info on the legend of the Christmas Owl either other then it being the eyes for Santa.  What is the story behind that?  Surely, there must be more!

Hope you are enjoying a Very Merry Christmas!

4 comments:

  1. He does not look like an owl to me. We have some hawks in our area and they look somewhat like this...hard to tell for sure. Have you seen him with binoculars? Good luck with finding out what he is.

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  2. Looks like an owl too me for sure. I have not info or know nothing about them. Merry Christmas Mary. I hear ya on the whirlwind. I am pooped!

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  3. The color on the wing tips don't look like an owl to me, but what do I know!!! I haven't heard anything about owls, either good or bad, but I find them fascinating! We had the most relaxing Christmas ever! We didn't leave the house or take off our jammies all day! It was awesome! We leave for Tennessee tomorrow so our bit of whirlwind begins! Merry Christmas!

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  4. That is a beautiful specimen of a Red-shouldered hawk. :) Sorry to jump in, stumbled across this on a Google search.
    -elisssabeth

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