Owl Spotted In Brookfield

We've lived in Brookfield, a suburb about five miles west of Milwaukee, since 1990. When we first moved here, a dead oak stood outside the master bedroom window and sometimes at night we'd hear an owl hooting, we thought, from a perch on its branches.

Ultimately, we cut most of the oak down but left about 10 feet of trunk that we built a sandbox-playground around. We continued to hear owls hooting but they didn't sound as close.

Early last Sunday morning, my wife came to my office and said she could hear an owl hooting and it sounded close. I went back to the bedroom with her which is at the opposite end of the house and the hooting was loud.

I quietly walked outside and stood in our driveway which is also at the opposite end of the house. After about five minutes, I spotted the owl standing at the very top of one of the towering pines that is just outside our master bedroom. It was a huge bird with a thick body; I don't know what type, but given its size it might have been a great horned owl which are said to be common in this area.

The owl continued hooting and sometimes, in the distance, another owl would hoot back.

My wife soon came out and joined me, and we watched this magnificent (though surely malevolent, too) animal for a while longer before it leaped into the air and glided off to the north.