I'm sorry I've been absent

Sometimes, despite our best intentions, life takes over. But I've been knitting again the last few days, and hope to show off a finished object again in the very near future.

Meanwhile, I had a visitor in my back yard yesterday who was so kind as to stay long enough for me to run in and get my camera. Have I mentioned that I love having a 12x optical zoom on my camera? There's no way my old 4x zoom could have taken this picture.

I know I only have a handful of readers, but are any of you owl experts who can tell me what kind it is? And can I tell from the picture whether my new friend is a boy or a girl? I've not ever seen an owl outside of a nature preserve or zoo, so this is all foreign to me.