The heeler sisters and I were walking back from the post office yesterday when a pickup pulls up to the curb.

Facing the wrong way, of course. Rarely matters in this small town. Even the cops do it.

A neighbor, wanting me to know what he's been watching in the trees in his yard the past couple weeks.

Owls.

Great-horned owls. Four of them, to be exact.

Well, he's just two blocks from where we released the young owls from the refinery. Been wondering where they got off to.

But there's supposed to be five owls in the family. One youngster fledged and flew off with the parents before the other two had to be moved. Is he sure there's just four?

Nope. Just four.

Around six yesterday evening I get a call. The owls are there, if I want to look. So I grab the camera, and stroll around the corner.

My neighbor is waiting, excited to show me his new residents.

Like neither of us has ever seen owls before. And sure enough, there are just four. Two youngsters down low in the corner tree

and in the tree in front of his house, there are two more. One, the lower one, is clearly an adult with full "horns" (or pinnae) and a long tail.

But the other? We stare at the other one for quite a while. It's large, like the adult below, but the horn feathers haven't come in yet. The tail feathers are still short, and it just seems kinda skinny.

It's a juvenile. Probably the oldest of the three, the one that fledged on its own.

Where's the other parent?

Me, I'm not worried. It could be anywhere. They don't necessarily babysit the kids during the day. 'Specially when the kids end up scattered in different places. But my neighbor, he's worried.

So we look.

And he spots it first. High in a tree around the corner.

The other adult.

All present and accounted for, I guess. I suggest my neighbor watch them around sunset. He'll probably see both parents coming in to feed the young.

And home I go.

Our neighbor called again this evening.

One of the youngsters fell out of the tree. Literally, fell out of the tree.

My guess is it fell asleep.

But it landed in the street, right in front of a pickup. I'm bracing myself for bad news...

"No, it hopped right up and flew back into the tree..."

"But it sure was funny to watch."

"Except for the truck coming, of course."

"Well, that's all I called to tell you."

And back to watching owls he went.