Silent Flight

An early arrival by Pepper at 6:45pm PST. She sat quietly, looking around. Seemingly watching the skies and following whatever she saw, with a head that kept turning back and forth. At 7:15 she spotted something and immediately takes off. As soon as she was off camera, I heard one screech. She returned to the side branch at 1:06, where she commenced preening her feathers. At 1:20am she was gone. Nothing to be seen after that until 3:29, she is back again. Pepper makes one more appearance after that. No sightings of Salt.

 

 Remiges

The surface of the flight feathers (Remiges) is covered by a velvety  structure that absorbs  sound of the wing movement. Along the edge of the Remiges is a comb like or fimbriate (fringe-like) edge of the primary wing feathers referred to as (flutings or fimbriae)which brings the flapping movement of the wing down to an almost nonexistent sound. The silent flight gives the owls the ability to hunt and capture prey by stealth, and also allows the owls to use it's hearing to pinpoint the flight pattern of the prey

FYI: 

Why are owls perceived as being wise? Answer: Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, was often depicted holding an owl