Mike in the Wild

It's been a long time since I've seen a western screech owl: six years, by my rough record-keeping.  So I was delighted to recently witness one in my Phoenix backyard after only a few days back in town following my long summer stay in Prescott.   The last time I wrote about this small owl species, I had just seen one roosting during the day at the Desert Botanical Garden.  It was the second time I had seen one there, and the third time ever.  The first was actually in an adjacent community to mine in Phoenix, when I watched an owl over the course of several days as it basked in a winter's early morning light from a perch in the hollow of a saguaro cactus.   Over the next six years, I occasionally heard the western screech owl's bouncing-ball hoots during winter nights in the desert.  However I was much more apt to hear the deep calls of a great horned owl, which I was also more likely to see on my sunrise runs.  Last week for the first time since the spring, I had turne