I photographed this Northern Saw-Whet Owl the other day around 5:30AM before dawn in the wild of our home, in the mountains of Pocatello, Idaho!! I put Johann Baptist Mayrhofer's Lullaby on it, modified so that all references to a little boy are changed to references to a little girl, in honor of the recent birth of a daughter to my colleague the singer Dr. Diana Livingston-Friedley and her husband Geoffrey Friedley. As both are professional singers who teach at ISU, it seems that this lullaby is appropriate! Both of them sing songs in German, and I have heard Dr. Livingston-Friedley in concert and can say that she does a great job, German diction included. Franz Schubert has beautifully set this Schlaflied to music, and perhaps one day Dr. Livingston-Friedley will sing it to us all in concert!

This is the first time I photographed an owl in the wild, even though it was done right from a comfortably warm room, with the door slightly opened to allow the camera to peek through!