I learned this after researching owls’ prey in the summer of ‘06. Our cat Smidgen was peering out our closed window that early June night, from her tabletop cushion inside. We spotted a Great Horned Owl perched on our front fencepost, just 15 feet from that window.

The owl was staring right in at our house. Did Smidgen look to the owl like a tasty confection in a bakery window? Or did the owl actually only see its own reflection, due to the streetlight?

In any case, we pulled shut the shade! And, thrilled, we grabbed our binoculars. Peeking out, we watched the owl swivel its head seemingly 3/4ths around, then saw it alight from the fence and move along.

A couple owls silently swooped around our Paynter’s Mill ‘hood that summer. They’d feast on the little frogs on the sidewalks. At dusk I watched one pick apart a snake, high up on a tree limb. The owl’s calls from the woods sounded like “cheeRIT! cheeRIT!”
We felt, like the Native Americans you cited, awed by their presence.