Hogwarts Comes Calling?

In Harry Potter lore, that wonderful literary universe created by J.K. Rowling, Hogwarts is a school of magic that comes calling on prospective students upon the occasion of their 11th birthday. Granted, they appear only if said prospective student has displayed some evidentiary level of possessing the gift of magic. For such introductions, sometimes the school dispatches an eccentrically dressed wizard or witch to offer the invitation. More commonly, however, the school will send forth an owl, carrying a formal letter of invitation and a list of supplies needed for the upcoming term.

Yesterday was my oldest son's 11th birthday, but alas, no owl arrived on our doorstep, through our window, or down our chimney. Yet this morning, as we were backing out of the garage to head off to our regular old private Christian Muggle school, a large owl swooped down from the roof of the house into the poplar right at the edge of the driveway. The zoom-challenged camera on my phone was unable to capture the wary looks exchanged between us and our visitor (which the boys thought was tremendously cool), but perhaps you can see our friend on the branch below to the left of the tree's trunk:


Aside from the excitement of a rare sighting of an owl in our yard during the daylight hours, sadly, no letter of invitation to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was delivered to our residence.

At which we could only say: "Diagon-it!"