listening to my own heart sing: owls

credit: Hungry Owl ProjectMaybe you have these, too -- things that just make your heart sing.  

They can be little things or big things, but I bet you know what they are. It's that stuff that lights you up, that you wish you had more time for, that maybe should have been your life's work.

That's me with animals.

Honestly, I can't get enough of them. I so shoulda been a biologist or a vet, but I content myself with my citizen-science and I surround myself with others like me, other animal nerds, people who share this same I-gotta-get-more-o-that passion that I have.  

More animals, please!

You may recall my excitement a few weeks ago when the prospect of feeding barn owls as part of the Hungry Owl Project first presented itself. Since then, I've fed them 6 times.

Each time I check the monitor first, to see if there is an owl or owls in the box, then I add a little water to the defrosted mice in the cooler-bag to moisten them, drain 'em, raise the ladder and climb on up.

I'm not wild about heights, but when it's for animals, no probs.

I perch up there, almost at the very top of what seems to me to be a very tall ladder, unlatch the little door in the front of the owl box, and insert the mice.  Generally I'm wearing a beat-up pair of garden gloves, but I find they make me feel a little ham-handed so, sometimes, when I know nobody's home, I just use my hands. Then I take a little look around and climb back down, lock up the ladder, and off I go, on my merry mouse-less way.

So far I haven't seen any owls while I'm up there, although I always scan the trees before and after, remaining still and quiet, listening.  The only indication that owls have been there is the number of mice remaining, a detail which I dutifully report to the rest of the team.

But even not seeing any owls, I'm still delighted to be helping, to be doing something animal-related, to be this weirdo with mice in my freezer.

Even without the gratification of seeing owls, still this Dr. Doolittle part of me is stoked and happy.

And then comes this email this morning containing photos and video from the camera that's on a tree facing the owl-box.  Video!!  Video of the owlet that was just placed in the box recently making her first foray outside, testing her wings. Beautiful and amazing. 

And makes my heart totally sing.

Here's to spending time on those things, little or big, that give us this feeling, that give us the chance to listen in on the singing of our own hearts. Is there any sweeter sound? 

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