the owl and the full moon

Early Sunday morning a sound from the garage told the farm boss that his not closing the outside door until after dark had let something in that could not get out. He went outside, came back for the camera and went out again. A barn owl was on one of the rafters in the back of the garage and no matter how he tried to encourage it to leave, the combination of daylight and its fear caused it to only burrow deeper into the walls and go to places he could not access.

After breakfast, having left the garage door open, he decided it had flown off. That assumption lasted until after going to bed Sunday night. I heard definite sounds of something moving in either the garage or the attic above the bedroom-- which has access from the garage. Grumbling, but resigned, the boss got back up, saw where it was but could not determine if it had trapped itself in the wall. He pried off boards outside on the eaves to create an escape hole. Although he could see its talons, knew it was there, it wouldn't come through.

Whether this owl thought that garage would make a nice home, or was simply petrified, the boss decided there was only one way to get any sleep. He pulled on a heavy shirt, leather gloves, safety goggles and went back out to get hold of it. When he came down, he said get the camera. After it posed for the requisite photos, it was released, flapped its beautiful wings as it flew off into the night-- hopefully in search of a better home.

This was our second close encounter with a barn owl as some years ago we had been on our way into town after dark when we saw one sitting alongside the road on the shoulder. It hadn't behaved normally. We had decided, if it was still there as we drove back, it likely meant it had been hit by a passing vehicle, and we would see if we could pick it up. It was; and with a heavy blanket, we did.

As soon as we had gotten home, stowed it safely into one of our cat carriers, we called the animal rescue facility, Chintimini in a town about 25 miles from here, where we knew they worked with wild creatures. They said bring it right in to assess its chances. An hour later, they were giving it treatment for shock and had said they felt it would survive but it had a concussion. Fortunately its wings were unhurt.

After a few weeks, they had called to tell us we could come get it and release it back to where we found it, which we did, being blessed to watch the same beautiful thing as it flew into the night.

Last night, with the owl excitement over, I looked up and saw the interesting way the full moon was highlighting the clouds. I remembered it likely had been behind the owl photos but doubted that would show much. I put on the telephoto. In the back of my mind, I was thinking about how I might melt two photos together-- but in the morning.

After breakfast, when I opened the pictures, I found some beautiful moon shots, and the lit clouds were even better than I had hoped. I also had one very clear owl photo.

Finding my favorite moon shot, I cropped it to the center of interest; then turned to the owl photos. One was rather small, one out of focus, but one was perfect. I reduced it to a size that would fit with the moon, used the mask tool to draw around its image, cropped it, and pasted it onto the moon photo. It only took a tiny bit with clone and smudge tools to make them one.

Together they create a mystical image that appeals to me. Poetry anyone? *s*