Well, now.

Just got back from the post office... the bigger owlet is no longer on the nesting terrace.

It is on the the second terrace to the right. The last terrace, the one with a broken window.

Either the youngster has suddenly mastered flight, or it managed to hop onto the awning over the hotel door, then over onto the next terrace, and then again on to the last terrace.

Hopefully she won't go through the broken window to get out of the hot sun. Likely to injure herself on her egress from the room later. But it appears to be fledging time.

The most dangerous time for almost any avian.

Got woken up by a phone call this morning. One of my wardens, advising she just got a report of a lion in town. Behind the Historical Site. Where Cougar lives.

She's responding, but has been out of town for a while. Wanted to know the status of the other warden's efforts to trap a lion in the hills above town. And where we are on our response levels.

Advise her I have heard nothing on the trapping efforts, so I assume they were unsuccessful. Have had one credible report of a lion leisurely walking down the street at least four or five blocks within town, probably two weeks ago.

We have agreed we are at the lethal response level. If the big cat is so cooperative as to tree or corner itself somewhere, allowing a close approach, then we use the tranquilizer option. But barring that, big cat shows up, shoot it.

She's okay with that, and on her way.

Calls back almost an hour later.

Two women walkers spotted a long-tailed feline walking through the brush below the trees below Cougar's rocks. Definite cat, almost as tall as the brush. They report 80-90 lbs. (How do people do that? I can't accurately guess the weight of lions or bears when I have the thing dead in a hunter's truck. And I've seen a few. How do all these people think they know what these animals weigh?)

Women had a cel phone with them, so the call was immediate. PD was there in four minutes.

This historical site is enclosed in a high chain link security fence. Only three points of egress are usually open... the main gate, the gate on the walking trail by the Armory parking lot (By Cougar), and the hole cut in the fence by someone up by Cougar's rock, so the deer can get in and out.

The women were at the front gate. The PD secured the Armory gate (and from there you can see the hole up on the hillside). No way out.

A thorough walk-through of the site by the warden and PD yielded...

-one mangy tabby cat.

And tiny little tabby prints in the weeds where the lion had been spotted. Weeds which do not make it to the knees of the warden, and she ain't tall.

Glad I stayed home.