note to self: better to have loved and lost than never loved at all...
heavy sigh…
so little star is gone — she was such a sweet spunky bird…silky soft and oh so beautiful, she knew it too. though there are many striking winged ones in the coup at mt. falcon, she fancied herself to be the best and made certain you felt the same way. like all great divas, she gave you just enough attention to be sure that you would make her the focus of yours. let’s be honest, that was a pretty easy thing to do, i mean how often is one graced with the presence of a barn owl? particularly one with such a distinctive personality! for me it was love at first sight as she was in flight when i first walked through the doors of mt falcon. because i spent more than a few minutes gazing at her from afar — i was able to get a glimpse of her coy maneuvers as she would sometimes deign to fly from glove to glove, which was the point of the exercise. more often than not, she was choosing to land on other perches around the room to the delight and amusement of the audience and a bit of frustration to the falconer trying to teach this bird a new trick. i think it was little star who was having the last laugh — and also the biggest treats for the least amount of effort as she knew very well that the best bits were being saved for the end of her seisiún. she was alerting her handler that she was done working for them. owls are known for being rather clever after all.
dedicated to smoothing little star’s easily ruffled feathers, izabella the falconer would acclimatize her to the human species, taking her on house calls throughout the manor to visit staff. in my chatting with folks, whenever little star’s name was mentioned, everyone’s face lit up when telling of their most recent encounter with the chic chick. being that her up close portrait was made of mostly shiny white feathers, little star’s boa scarf was permanently draped around her neck. bedazzled with distinctive spots glimmering like swarovski crystals that freckled her belly and body, it was if she were always dressed for the red carpet. graced with the very definition of a heart shaped face, falling in love with her was destiny. she was, in a word, stunning — and made distinctively so from the rest of her species by her very strong personality. little star’s signature move was looking at you just long enough to capture your attention and then look away as if she hadn’t the time for you today. it worked and everyone under her spell spent time cooing at her just to catch another glimpse of those deep dark eyes. if you were lucky, you got a head tilt to go with it. dreamy sigh…
(ok, so owls have much keener hearing than vision, particularly they can’t really see very well close up — that might have something to do with the head gestures but don’t let that affect the romanticizing and amorphasizing of it all.)
because izabella was wanting to get little star to fly from glove to glove more consistently, she had invited me to come out to help her as it’s not exactly a trick one can train on one’s own. luckily my daughter hallie had come from america to visit and was happy to help out — providing me opportunity to capture some footage of our starlet practicing this particular maneuver. little star was a grand sight… swooping back and forth from one gloved hand to another whilst also soaking up all the attention and fuss being made over her. my thrill was that she readily came to my hand to perch for the walk back to the falconry. more impressive was that she was coming in close as if for a cuddle. there was definitely a spark there, even izabella made comment that this was not little star’s typical m.o.
after what was only our third encounter with each other, i don’t know what forged us into kindred spirits so quickly. perhaps it was that we share a penchant for the spot light. or maybe it was that we both require a certain amount of down time in between all that adoration. for certain we are both night owls, she more literally and i more figuratively, but night owls all the same. in these wee hours of morning as i type, i continue to hunt for words to describe this surreal experience of meeting the physical manifestation of my aumakua — then losing her almost in the same breath. i don’t know what happened to cause her flight from this realm to the next. in our world, she is gone, though in my mind and heart she lives on. THAT is a bittersweet sigh of the all too familiar state of so many of my family and friends. maybe her message to us all is to let the grief move through while the love stays safe within. all i know for certain is that though she returns to myth and legend, little star’s presence was quite real. the night sky is the brighter for her having been a part of it all. so too is my interior landscape.
twinkle on Little Star, twinkle on…
the always “ready for my close up mister demille” and other photogenic moments of one miss little star - same diva, different days. be sure to click in the sidebar for the video documentation of her flight practice.
