Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville – coming full circle

I saw a fluttering of wings as I walked by the window. Little did I know I was about to meet an owl in my backyard.

Do you see her?

If I didn’t know better, I might have thought my fox sent her.

Listen, there’s this lady who will freak out if you go in her backyard. She will get her camera and take a million photos of you. She’ll even try to talk to you. So if you’ve been down on yourself lately, go see her and it’ll give you a real confidence boost.”
-fox to owl

Except I recently learned that owls prey on foxes, so that conversation was unlikely.

After just a few photos, she started to fly away and I called out,

No, don’t go! I haven’t even introduced myself!”
-lady to owl

Turns out she was actually trying to catch a squirrel – unsuccessful – so she humored me and sat in a tree to be admired. I don’t think I have admired anything as much since the birth of my children (don’t tell my fox I said that). I ran outside without a coat, but I didn’t need one because my heart was beating so fast. I can’t explain it, maybe it’s the intensity in her face.

She unfurled her feathers to then bask in all her glory like the queen she is.

I kept getting closer and closer until she looked at me like this, which stopped me dead in my tracks.

We stared at each other for a while. I would have stood there all day except for hypothermia.

I even hooted at her a couple of times, like an overenthusiastic nitwit but with meaning. I’m not being hard on myself, she confirmed this when she looked at me with an expression that said,

Stop hooting at me. You’re not an owl.”
-owl to lady

I took a video of her because of course I took a video of her. I swear, at about seven seconds in, my heart almost stopped.

We eventually parted ways, but we were never the same again (I’d like to think our meeting had a profound effect on both of us, but probably mostly on me and probably only on me). Thank you, Barred Owl of St-Bruno. Do come again.

We first met in 2019 when I saw him pass through my backyard. He didn’t stop to say hi so I called out, “Oh, so you’re going to play hard to get, huh?”

Things got pretty serious for us in 2022 when we first made eye contact.

But he quickly looked away, turning to a profile position as if to say, “Look how handsome I am from this angle.”

Sometimes he likes to play hide-and-seek with me.

But he mostly uses this steep hill to hunt. I hired a National Geographic reporter (just kidding, it’s me) to add commentary to one of his hunting expeditions. Watch three attempts here:

My mom has a hound dog, and I told her to bring him here immediately. I recently watched a very interesting movie where I learned a fox and a hound can be good friends.

A fox and a squirrel, on the other hand, do not make good friends. His hunting expedition was ultimately successful.

Our friendship had a staggering development on Valentine’s Day when he walked into my yard and we stared at each other for about a minute. Safe to say he is a romantic.

He paid me another visit a few days later, and I can only hope this means I made an impression.

One day, I saw him walk through the back like he was headed somewhere. So before the snow has melted, I followed the direction he took and am fairly certain I found his den. I didn’t get too close, though – I don’t want to be rude and invite myself in. Once the snow does melt, I will be returning to analyze the wood pile because I will obviously be recreating one in my backyard for next winter. I saw him poke around a couple of my wood piles this past winter, but they must not have been to his liking. I will remedy the situation.

I shared his photo on a Facebook group called “View from my window.” He was very popular there, and I loved talking all things fox with people from all over the world.

An artist in Pennsylvania contacted me to ask if she could paint my photo. I am happy to share this painting by Gloria Powell. I think he would be pleased with this portrait. I would love to show him, but I do not want to look like some sort of crazy lady waving my phone around at a fox. Maybe I’ll have one of the kids do it.

Then I was contacted by a publisher in Japan who was releasing a book of a selection of photos from “View from my window,” and they sent me a copy of the book once it was published. I probably would not even be able to walk the streets of Tokyo without people stopping me to ask, “Are you the fox lady? From the book?!”

He has not returned in this winter of 2023, but that doesn’t mean my eyes aren’t always looking for him.