lucyoncolorado

In which I see an owl and a fox with bird color vision...

I know I'm sleeping. I look out my window into my backyard (which isn't possible in real life since my window faces the front yard). I see my backyard under the moonlight in amazing tetrachromatic, UV vision. I'd listened to a podcast earlier that day that explained that certain birds can see all the colors that we see in addition to UV.

The moon is full and shining brightly yet somehow the stars are also stunning. The sky is indigo, and everything is perfectly still. The pecan trees in my backyard cast purple shadows on most of my yard, but their tops are bathed in deep green light.

A large owl, checkered with brown and white feathers, glides into my yard and lands on the fence to my kitchen garden. It's a great horned owl, and it's white feathers sparkle. I think that the feather I found in the lawn the other day must belong to him; he must be a regular visitor. I watch him through the window, and I think about waking up R to share the moment with him. But I realize that to wake up R, I'd have to wake up myself and this would make the owl disappear.

The owl is facing my chicken coop, smelling them and wishing he could get inside. The chickens are closed up securely, huddled together and listening to the predator. I know they are safe.

Then a fox with a white tipped tail leaps onto my fence from the field behind our house. It then jumps onto the roof of the chicken coop and turns to stare at me. Its eyes shine, and it looks spooky.