4 AM.   I'm awoken again, the second time this week, by a fairly close “Hoo-hoo hoo-hoo Hooo Hooo”.  It's our night time visitor calling from the towering eucalyptus trees that are just on the other side of our backyard fence.  I wonder if he or she is looking for a mate.  I strain my ears for the return call, but I don't hear one.

I haven't been able to see this great horned owl during the day.  Two days ago, my husband nearly got hit by a small bird carcass dropped from one of the trees, when we were out under them picking up small white bird feathers. The little bird's chest was ripped open and the intact heart could be seen. It was likely our unseen great horned owl that accidentally dropped it.  We  have to do a routine patrol of the yard looking for anything our dogs could ingest including owl pellets and small bird carcasses. It's an inherent risk of having a backyard that abuts ranch land and that is planted with natives.  We have lots of visitors that are probably attracting our owl: a variety of songbirds, blue jays, mourning doves, hummingbirds and hawks, the occasional snake, a large raccoon, a gray fox and her kits, opossums, and a skunk that has also been a nightly visitor of late.  Our largest guest was a black bear that hung out on our side of the fence for about an hour one hot May day appearing to try to cool off in the shade of some shrubs.  Because of this particular visitor, our dogs had to get an extra vaccination to prevent leptospirosis.

There are some definite risks of having a native backyard landscape, but I really enjoy sitting in the family room in all seasons looking out the patio doors at all the different birds and insects  flitting around from plant to plant, flower to flower and keeping an eye open for our other native “guests”.