We are now facing the long, cold nights of winter, the season of the owl. Equipped with superb vision and hearing and insulated with a dense coat of feathers, the owls rule these frigid nights, oblivious to the conditions. Their prey, primarily mice, voles and cottontails, must stay active to survive and the patient owls are waiting.
This is, in fact, the onset of the breeding season for great horned owls and their hoots will build over the next six weeks. We humans, not naturally designed for this season, retreat to our heated dens; a night in the cold and snow is but a bad dream. But we take solace in the call of the owl, a message that nature's cycle endures and that, in time, spring will arrive.
