An update.

After hours more completely scientific observation (staring out the window betweeen solitaire hands)(oh, and while making dinner, because I am nothing if not a model home maker)(and I have a bridge to sell you...), contemplation, squinting, and muttering (including trying to peer through the detached eyepiece of a telescope which rendered the world tiny and upside-down), we here at Casa Bewildered have determined the mystery critter to be a Great Horned owl and not a giant red squirrel (unless it's a mutant giant red squirrel, in which case we'll be moving soon). It did, in fact, fly away at dusk.

We are hoping to see more of it, as it's possibly the third most exciting thing we've experienced here in Blahsville, the first being the advent of Bird and the second the new fridge. Sadly, it didn't leave an owl pellet, so Mike Rowe won't be stopping by after all and providing me with a new second most exciting moment (Bird will always be first, making me a complete schmaltz. I'm good with that.). Sigh.