Wintersleep: The Scene

“Wintersleep” : Barred Owl

Canon 100-400mm | 2023

Meet me in the woods

“Who cooks for you? WHO COOKS FOR YOU ALL?!” The barred owl cries with its sorrowful nine notes. The presence of life on the forest floor and creaky branches halt - an incredible procession of diving and hurdling into mossy crevasses ensues, violently disrupting nightly routines. Jet black eyes scan the twilight hours for any movement, for any creature left behind. A crackle ensnares the wood, 

and out cries a regretful, whispered

With a full, 270 degree head rotation, the facial disk of this bullet shaped predator allows for even the slightest of sounds to be detected - crushing the soul of a mouse 25 yards into the distant shades of blackness.

I stilled, unable to interrupt the rollick.

Wintersleep feasts amongst the wood - the quiet bellows.

“...and the barred owl calls from the well of my mind, more echo than thought, as it fades through the wind and flickers away to the silence beyond -  like that voice, in myself, of another.”

John Burnside, Black Cat Bone