Photo Friday: a parliament ... of owls

Happy Friday, DMV! It’s June 12.

Yesterday was a scorcher. A week ago, Capital Weather declared spring over and summer underway in D.C. They forecast another hot day today.

We got a reprieve last night at sunset. Dark clouds rolled in. Our windows were open, and the wind picked up, gusting into our home. The temperatures dropped suddenly — considerably. I listened as the rain calmed to a pitter-patter, and fireflies lit up our yard.

On another note … welcome to photo Friday, when I share with you reader-submitted photos. For years, I’ve invited readers to send me photos of life around the region. On Wednesday, as I was looking through the latest images submitted, my jaw dropped at this one.

A parliament of owls! (While clicking around, I found a fun BBC piece about bizarre names for groups of animals.)

Lauren Schierer, 42, wrote in her submission that she captured the image at 8:45 p.m. Tuesday, in her backyard in Leesburg, Virginia. I reached out to Lauren, who said her family has occasionally seen barred owls flying around and in their trees, but never three in a row like that.

“We’re wondering if they’re a family group since we’ve only ever seen one or two at a time,” she said.

She talked to her kids to get the whole story of how they spotted these owls.

“I was in the house cleaning up from dinner when my 14-year-old son returned from a friend’s house around sunset on Tuesday evening. My 14-year-old put his bike in the shed, and while he was walking through the backyard on his way to our back door, he saw the 3 owls on the treehouse,” Lauren wrote in an email yesterday.

“The back door was locked, and when my 6-year-old opened it for him, he told him about the owls. My 6-year-old went to see the owls and then came back into the house very excited, yelling out that 3 owls were on the treehouse.

“I immediately went outside to see for myself. At that point everyone in the house had heard about the owls, and we were all (myself, my husband and 4 boys) gathered outside to take photos and just admire the amazing sight!”

Here’s the zoomed-out version of the image.

“The owls seemed to be looking at us but did not seem afraid. After about 10 minutes, one owl flew away, but 2 remained. It was getting pretty dark so we finally came back inside and shared the photos with family and friends. My Mom reads your Daily Dose and asked me submit the photo to you :) ”

Tell me your stories. Show me what has given you joy and awe. Click here to share your photos of life in the DMV.

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