A Barred Owl & My First Texas Hurricane!

Howdy y'all! I just got back from a late dinner at Bennigan's. It was a little before midnight, the storm clouds had cleared, the night air was calm, and a full moon was shining brightly. As I walked from the car to the house I heard a distant hooting. Barred Owl! I tried performing a bad immitation of its call, to which it responded with a much more believable imitation of its own. We called back and forth for a while, and then it moved closer and I got a brief glimpse of it in flight. Then it started again from a new perch, but I was unable to locate it with my flashlight. One more for the yard list!

Hurricane Claudette ravaged parts of Texas on Tuesday, making landfall farther down the coast. My little piece of heaven was spared its destructive fury, but we did get gusty winds and rain off and on. I did a little birding while picking up storm debris in the yard. The only noteworthy sighting in the wake of the storm was a fly-by Great Crested Flycatcher.