1st September and PPO arrives..

It's official. On this first very warm day of Spring, Pot Plant Owl is comfortably sitting in the pot plant.

This morning we woke up early and checked the balcony for any signs of our owl visitors. The sun was just rising and there seemed to be no owl in sight. A few minutes later, I happened to look on the balcony again.

And there she was - standing on the balcony railing staring straight at me. I knew immediately that PPO wanted to move in and nest, so I quickly hid out of view. No sooner had I done that, I heard a murder of crows on the rooftop nearby. The crows were perched on the edge of the rooftop - staring in the direction of Pot Plant Owl on the balcony railing, waiting to attack.

I stuck my head out of the window, and in my best immitation of Allan's 'crow-crowing-with-flailing-arms' stunt, I scared the crows off pretty quickly. (Perhaps 'scared' is not the correct word. They were probably not the least bit afraid of me, but thought me too odd to hang around near). With crows away, I turned my attention to PPO again.

The little stinker! While I was protecting the territory, she seized the opportunity to settle down into the pot plant container. But hold on - that's not the 'stinky' part of this tale.

I know that PPO knows where the cameras and the microphone are. I know that she has sussed this all out long before this morning. I know she, along with Pappa, saw us all puzzling over the best angles and distances for the camera views and sound. And I bet, she sat and chuckled to herself thinking: 'Just you wait, you know-it-all-humans!' - a message that, were I an animal with general telepathic abilities, I would have picked up days ago.

PPO a.k.a. Little Stinker is dozing off in the 'wrong' pot plant. She's sitting pretty in the pot plant NOT covered by the big camera, night light, microphone...

For the first time in 5 years, Pot Plant Owl has chosen the far pot plant as her nest for this year, and there is nothing we can do about it.Except change the camera, swivel the night light, move the microphone....

What has caused this change of pot plant container? We don't know for certain, but I suspect a lot has to do with the increase in crows in the Jozi area, and in our area in particular. The container she has chosen has a small 'Mickey Mouse' bush in it. She ducks out of sight of crows perfectly. Very close to the container is a reed wall cover which further protects her from the crows. And perhaps PPO wants more cover from our summer thunderstorms. Who knows!

Sigh! She's been here for 8 hours and already she's got us running around after her.
Still, I wouldn't have it any other way...