I was making my way out of the mall without anything that I went in there for, grouchy and irritable after 4 hours out of the house dealing with customer-serviceless-drones, and ready to just go home, cook lunch, and sit down with the cat. I was actually literally mumbling to myself about how irritating everything is, when I heard a loud bird screech (you can click here and scroll down to hear the sound, but it'll ruin the suspense of the story a bit).
I turned sharply toward the sound and saw this at the foot of my car, staring up at me:
I didn't take this picture (so sad I forgot my camera!), but his stare was just like that. He was staring at me so intensely. He would stare, then look away. Then stare, then look away. (Maybe he was a youngin' and didn't want his mama to see him making friends with The Big Creatures.)
"Hello there!" I said, so totally over social norms that I had no qualms about being seen speaking to an owl in English in a Brazilian mall parking lot. "Isn't it past your bedtime?"
He didn't answer, of course, just stared at me expectantly. I didn't have any food or anything with me, or I would've tried giving it to him.
We stayed there just staring at each other for about a minute. It wasn't the first coruja-buraqueira (burrowing owl) I've seen around here, but it was definitely the closest I'd been to one. It was fun. We bonded, had a connection. He calmed me down a bit. And then I went on my way.
Turns out they're diurnal owls. But they're totally cute and so expressive. I want one now. He and Gatinha can hunt together.
Totally made my day!
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I love that you worked in "small town shenanigans". Did you ever see that movie "Waiting" which was all about the crazy crap waiters do behind the scenes? It was a play on Bennigan's (one of which I worked at for years and could so relate)!.
ReplyDeleteCrazy that you have owls in town!!
Danielle,
ReplyDeleteThat's so cool that you encountered a burrowing owl so close to all the human structures and activities in your city (town?)! Here in California, BUOW's are protected, but they are fairly common near suburban areas in abandoned fields or scraped acreage prepped for subdivisions. I talk all the time to the birds I see at work; I'm sure the construction workers think I'm crazy, too, for talking to animals like they're children.
Whoa, that's so amazing that you have animals like that in your mall parking lots! It's adorable!! Unfortunately, I don't think it would get along with your cat. I can picture you walking around with an owl on your shoulder to stare people down for you though.
ReplyDeleteWe had a friend in Sao Paulo who took a hurt owl home and kept it for a whole month, the owl would just hang with them around the kitchen and loved to stay at the window starring outside.
ReplyDeleteThe owl got better and they let her back into the wild.
They are super people friendly.
That is funny! A couple of years ago, bf and I were visiting his family in Belo. His mother was eating chicken in the kitchen, she started screaming. An owl flew in and landed on her head! She said she she was glad we were her witnesses, otherwise she would of been committed!
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