Bubo, the Great Horned Owl (American Woodland Tales) by Jean Craighead George & John George

Author:Jean Craighead George & John George [George, Jean Craighead]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 9781453224441
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2011-08-09T06:00:00+00:00

Bubo received the news of their hatching through the movements of Black Talon. She stirred and shifted and wiggled all night as if something alive were struggling beneath her. He understood the meaning of this language and swooped through the forest in great excitement. He came back with a rat, then circled fiercely over the slough, for this was a moment of the greatest importance to the owls of the ancient forest.

At the end of the week, when the owlets were puffs of grayish-buff down, and their big beaks and feet seemed to fit them better, a long warm rain came to the Michigan lake region. The last of the snow melted and slipped down the valleys into the streams and rivers. Black Talon remained over the owlets all day. About ten o’clock at night the downpour stopped for a few hours, and Black Talon left the nest to hunt with Bubo for the first time in many weeks. The night air was warm, and the owlets well protected in their natal down. Furthermore Black Talon had pushed a rabbit against them for warmth. Black Talon would not stay long, for her sensitivity to the weather told her that a change was coming. Far to the west a freezing wind was blowing toward the lake states.

The huntress went to the creek forest for her first excursion. She was acutely aware of the pleasure of the warm wind passing through her wings. Her sense of freedom was intense. It had been long since she had winged along the stream bed. She looked down on her old haunts with all the joy that she was capable of. Suddenly her big eyes, which in the darkness were almost all black with only the finest rim of yellow, sighted a mouse scrambling along the bank of the stream. It was a difficult place to strike, but she was hungry. She dived onto the animal.

As she struck the mouse swerved toward the stream. Black Talon jumped down the bank to a log. She felt a stabbing pain in her left leg. The jaws of a mink trap had closed on her foot and she was captured on the bank of the stream. She pulled to be free, was snapped back by the chain and lay stretched on her breast on the bank. Though her leg bothered her, she pulled and flapped again and again. Then she became frantic as she realized she could not get off the ground. For nearly an hour she strained at the trap and chain.

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