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Sitting owl, sitting me…

23 June 2017 by Simon Barnes 12 Comments

This week I had an operation on my knee. Cartilage. Rum business. Walking was getting difficult — now it’s fixed I can hardly walk at all. I’m supposed to give it time. Well, what else have I got?

I could hardly go looking for wildlife in pursuit of my Wild June ambitions, but I at least I was able to limp onto the veranda and look out. Listen out, rather. Plenty of good sounds: song thrush in good voice, perhaps going for a second brood, murmur of garden warbler from – where else? – the garden; it seems there are warblers at the bottom of the garden.

I reached for my drink but there wasn’t one; I’m supposed to be off the booze for 48 hours after the anaesthetic, and to tell the truth, a drink’s the last thing I fancy. Very rum. And then a bird flew over the grass – the long area we keep uncut – and perched in the big oak in plain sight.

A kind family member fetched my binoculars, providing me with a perfect – but perfect view of a little owl, its yellow eyes glinting like a pair of little suns in his little cross face as he perched there in the first hints of dusk. It was clearly a much-used hunting perch, the long, life-filled long grass beneath him was part of his private hunting estate.

Always mowing, they are, people. Fair enough: but they won’t see many little owls. Tidiness is lifelessness.

Because I could not move towards the wild world, the wild world kindly moved towards me. I’ll raise a glass in thanks. Maybe even tonight…

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Posted in Wildblog

Comments

  1. Bill Hone (@bill_hone) says

    23 June 2017 at 12:53 pm

    My mowed grass is at the top of the garden – to show off to visitors? My wildlife garden is at the bottom, hidden from view. Problem is I can’t see it from the house! But I know it’s there. And I know it’s working, so that’s some consolation.

    Reply
  2. David Gibson says

    23 June 2017 at 12:54 pm

    Sympathy for the knee.
    I had the same op about 25 years ago and when my leg buckled one day it nearly caused me to topple down a bank and join the 200 flamingoes that regularly visit the lagoon half an hour from my home.
    As we say in Greece “perastika”.
    Please keep the posts coming — I’m loving Eddie’s blog. Say hello – and bravo.

    Reply
  3. Andy Lloyd Williams says

    23 June 2017 at 2:01 pm

    Simon, we wish you a speedy recovery and sincerely hope the knee repairs quickly and that you are soon out again in your wild world, perhaps on horseback.
    Best wishes
    Peter & Andy Lloyd Williams (Mr & Mrs)

    Reply
  4. heroicarules says

    23 June 2017 at 3:15 pm

    Lovely post and lovely little owl. On the knee front I had a new knee just over a year ago and it was a much longer haul than I expected, make sure you do all the physio possible. Stepping over things backwards proved the hardest action to return, difficult for a walker and a gardener to manage without that. Good luck.

    Reply
  5. Sylvia Welling says

    23 June 2017 at 5:53 pm

    Thank you for the blog Simon, wish you well and hope you will soon be mobile again and birdwatching further afield. Enjoy the drink!

    Reply
  6. Jan Smith says

    23 June 2017 at 9:14 pm

    Love your description of the ‘little cross faces’ of Little Owls. I hope hat wildlife continues to come to you and hat you recover speedily.

    Reply
  7. Werner-Johannes Müller says

    24 June 2017 at 4:20 pm

    all the best, simon – patience … paciencia ..

    Reply
  8. Ilona says

    26 June 2017 at 3:45 pm

    All the best for your recovery, Simon – you’ll need patience, I think. Your writing is so simple and true. I enjoy it very much…

    Reply
  9. Michael Clark says

    27 June 2017 at 7:40 pm

    Get well soon Simon. Nothing more frustrating

    Reply
  10. Dave Alinson says

    28 June 2017 at 9:10 am

    Best wishes, Good stuff as usual. Cheers.

    Reply
  11. Michael Groves says

    29 June 2017 at 8:19 am

    Wishing you a good recovery Simon. How lovely to have little owls in the garden – that surely must aid any recovery. Eddie wrote so evocatively of his venture into little owl territory at the bottom of the garden on his blog. I do love to see, or hear, a little owl. And I do hear them more than I see them. Where I help out at Riding for the Disabled there are little owls. I often hear them calling during the day and always add little owl call recognition skills to the horse riding being learnt.

    Reply
  12. Anthony Bird says

    26 July 2017 at 10:00 pm

    Simon, it has taken me a month to reply to this blog , I imagine you are fully mobile by now, thanks for that description of your wild area,we have a wild area but I have never seen a Little Owl in it.!

    Reply

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