My husband and I walk a 2 mile circuit every morning, often starting before the sun is up especially as the days grow shorter. This morning, leaving the house around 6 am it was quite dark and by the time we came around the back end of the circuit coming to our house it was still pretty dark. I don't know what the word for that dawn light is but there must be one analogous to gloaming since that only pertains to dusk. In any case, the woods are on our left side as we turn on to our lane with a very small rise between us and our house so anything at the rise gets silhouetted. Both of us said, "What's that?" I told my husband I thought it was an owl although he thought it might be one of the foxes. We took a few more steps and we were both sure that it was an owl but it wasn't moving, just standing on the ground looking at us. We got closer and it still didn't move and we knew it was a great horned owl staring at us as though it might attack. A couple more steps and we found out why it didn't want to leave.
It had killed one of the many rabbits that roam the woods and our yard and didn't want to lose a good meal. We got within about three feet before it turned and flew into the woods. This owl was so big I have no doubt it could carry the rabbit away and probably our terrier too.
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