Day 1259: Off on a wild owl chase

Today our expected rain arrived, one day or so of wetness. I stayed indoors most of the day, working on my references and bibliography, but at 8 pm it was just misty so I went on a walk for exercise. The mist was so thick that it may have qualified as fog. Here’s a photo looking south from the middle school – Spencer Butte should be in the middle of the photo, but it’s too far away, although the nearer hills are visible. (It should look very much like my icon.)



I sent the photo to J via Skype, and commented, “The butte is gone.” His response: “Well, that’s unfortunate, it’s an important part of our skyline.”

Soon after that, I heard a striking bird call, and my Merlin app told me it’s a killdeer. Cool! I continued walking homeward, and after a bit I heard our neighborhood owl. I’d like to know what kind of owl it is! The app recognized that it was hearing a bird, but didn’t venture an identification, so I went up a side street a bit to get closer. Unfortunately, it also started raining harder, and although when I got to Oak Court I could hear the owl quite clearly, at that point the app couldn’t distinguish it from the sound of the rain. Oh well.