VISITOR: A retired school teacher, Rick Richards is a supporter of the Bradford Owls.

But he’d rather not have an actual owl as a visitor.

Rick stopped in to tell us what happened at his house over Thanksgiving. He and his wife had been out of town, and returned after an 8 hour drive — tired and just wanting to go to bed.

Rick carried the suitcases to the bedroom, opened the door … and heard the flutter of wings. Dreading the possibility of a bat, he quickly shut the door and decided to deal with it the next day.

“I put my bat suit on,” he said with a laugh, explaining he got ready to go set the visitor free. When he opened up the bedroom door, it was not a bat perched on his lampshade. It was a young owl.

“I’m sure the bedroom door was shut while we were gone, because I opened it and heard the flutter,” he said, adding that he has no idea how the bird got into his house. It had left its … ahem, calling card in the downstairs of the home, so it must have been enjoying the comfort of the Richards’ abode for a bit of time.

And he knows the door wasn’t open. “I always tell the grandkids, ‘Shut the door, were you born in a barn?’” he said with a laugh, adding he has a T-shirt that says the same thing.

He eventually opened the bedroom windows and the owl left of its own accord.

Rick took several pictures of the young bird, but said he didn’t know whether it might have been a barn owl — “maybe it heard me say ‘were you born in a barn’ to my grandkids,” he joked, or possibly a screech owl.

“I don’t give a hoot what kind of owl it is, I just didn’t want it in my bedroom,” Rick said with a laugh.