We left off on Tuesday, taking my parents to the airport. Then back tracked to Monday, search and rescue of little one from rising tide in marsh.

MiniMe spent the rest of the day Monday, that night and most of the day Tuesday in the lichen Live Oak, seemingly getting itself clean of pluff mud and recovering its dignity. MM climbed higher into the tree, looking cold, miserable and lonely. Tuesday night we could hear the usual sounds of hunting, all four voices. Two owls, two owlets.

Wednesday morning I could hear MiniMe back in the marsh.  I walk the docks and easement, listening and looking. It is softly squawking, communicating with its parents. The bigger owlet is still high up in the Live Oak tree on our eastern property line.  It is as if Big Foot was told to stay there and be quiet. And it did. Not so much with MiniMe.

Where is MiniMe?

As I get closer to the cedar tree on the easement, the parent makes a low guttural hoot. And MiniMe goes silent. Was that to warn me? Or the owlet? It is a low toned hoot growl.  I am not sure if it is directed at me or the little one and maybe, (probably?) even at both of us. But now I know where MM is.

Yes. It is about 1/3 of the way up the cedar tree interior. Hiding. Not making a peep. I don’t know how it made its way there, a distance of about 180 yards.

In the afternoon, I take a stroll down our dock. I see the larger owlet high up in the Live Oak Tree where it has been roosting since Monday. And then I spot MiniMe, enjoying a marsh view from the Cedar tree, no longer hiding in the tree. It makes me laugh.

My husband and I take a walk over to the easement in the evening to check on MiniMe. It is back in the marsh again.

It looks a little worse for wear but clearly does not want to go ‘home’. It is not far from the cedar tree and is close enough to high ground that it should be safe when the tide comes in. I hesitate.

Me? Worry?

Scott and I hear the usual owl hunting communications later that night after our dinner. Two owls, two owlets.

But…I did worry. (Of course I worried! You knew that already.) And as it turns out, I had good reason.