In Which Connor Is Tired And An Owl Is Harassed

Connor spent a good portion of today barely awake.  I think the new medication is having a sedative effect.  Hopefully he'll get used to it over the next week or so and it won't be as much of an issue.

He had two seizures today, but they were both relatively short.  He also took three naps today, which for him is a heck of a lot of naps.  Of course, now it's well past his bedtime and he's wide awake.  It figures.

My parents left today; it was great to have them here!  I was sorry we didnt' get to go out and do more-- because Connor was feeling so under the weather we mostly ended up just hanging out around the house.  It was still really nice to see them, though, and I hope they can come back and visit us again soon!

Because it was so lovely and sunny outside today, this afternoon I took Connor out and laid him down on a blanket in the grass, where he took a nap while I did some weeding.  Having Mom here definitely jump-started my gardening habit!  As soon as Jeremy got home from work I rushed down to the nursery, where I bought a beautiful weeping dwarf Japanese maple for the area right by our new deck.  I spent the next hour or so digging a hole for it.  We have lovely soil in this area that's easy to dig, but then it's offset by being chalk full of large river rocks, making it almost impossible to use a large shovel.  So I ended up digging a hole for the tree with a hand trowel, which provided me with my exercise for the evening.  It was nearly dark by the time I finished, but I got the tree planted and watered in.  Hopefully it will be happy in its new home.

It was towards dusk that I heard a flock of crows start making a big ruckus in the trees a few houses down.  I've figured out what this means by now, so I stopped working and looked up.  A minute or two later a barred owl glided across the sky, headed for the wooded park.  He was pursued by about fifteen crows, who were sounding the alarm at top volume.  I could hear the owl making chuckling little sounds of annoyance when he was directly overhead.

They quickly disappeared into the trees, but I could hear the crows for about five more minutes before they turned around and flew back over the house-- probably to get back to their nesting sites before the sun set completely.  The crows seemed very pleased with themselves.

So that was pretty neat!  This was the same type of owl as the one that ran into my sliding door last year, though I'm sure this was not the same one as it was quite a bit smaller.  I'm pretty sure I saw one half of a mating pair, because a little later in the evening I could hear two of them calling back and forth to each other.  Now that the deck is finished I may have to spend some more time outside at twilight!

~Jess