Playing with a barred owl

Well, that was magical.

Lately, I've been experimenting with meshtastic, a technology of small, low power radios that run software to form a mesh of communications over a few tens of kilometers range, and enable text-based messaging independent of any other infrastructure. In theory useful for situations where the power is out for an extended period of time, like ham radio enthusiasts describe.

For the last couple of days, I've been hoisting one up one of our taller trees to see what kind of range I can get.


 

Also for the last few days, our barred owl has been active. On Monday, I startled it under the deck, and we spent an hour watching each other. 



Last night my arboreal meshtastic node's battery died, because the solar panel was not aligned with the sun. So I hauled it down, and was working on getting the halyard in a better position. 

All of the sudden, our neighbourhood owl flew in, to see what I was up to!

I interacted with her(?) for a couple of hours. She was curious, and not too shy. The closest we got to each other was 3-4 meters. I found her behaviour cat-like, curious and predatory.

I was dragging a failed node-hoisting stick away after deciding to leave her in peace, but she followed it, and we had this fun game: https://youtu.be/m3ZnGtYNbho

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