Tag: Owls

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I’m At Home in the Dark

At Home in the Dark: Western Screech Owl Fledgling Courtesy and Copyright Katarzyna Bilicka, Photographer
Western Screech Owl Fledgling
Courtesy & © Katarzyna Bilicka, Photographer
All year I wait for the summer evenings. All year I long for the oddity of ‘warm and dark,’ of trilling owls flickering from treetop to treetop, and for the scent of hot baked earth cooling as on a sill. Summer evenings evoke in me joy in being out of doors, living within the intact Eden which lies just below our own preconceptions, and deepening my appetite for life. Summer evenings, those dark arid cradles of Utah’s providence, have other benefits, too.

It’s in the dark that you can live in the footsteps of local literatos. We can heed the words of Utah’s Ed Abbey, that: “There’s another disadvantage to the use of the flashlight: like many other mechanical gadgets it tends to separate a man from the world around him. If I switch it on my eyes adapt to it and I can see only the small pool of light it makes in front of me; I am isolated. Leaving the flashlight in my pocket where it belongs, I remain a part of the environment I walk through and my vision, though limited, has no sharp or definite boundary.”

It is also in the dark that we can allow our eyes a rest from glowing rectangles, and for the rest of our navigational senses to pick up slack. Our ears listen for how sound meanders in the landscape, detecting the clitter clatter of dogs on the deck, or chickens working their scratch. Our nose picks up the scent of a neighbor’s firepit to the east, and when the wind shifts the humidity from another neighbor’s evening watering to the west.

It is in the dark that we can also learn to see that we share spaces with corpuscularities and nocturalites. Those trilling owls, Western Screech Owls to be exact, who emerge from their deadstand cavities and prowl for rodenta. When one spots a human watching it, it watches back, then dances a shimmy-rumba-polka. I imagine that it’s waiting for us to communicate, too.

The dark also brings the insects galore which fill the nights making good on their pollination out of the heat of the day, playing odds with the primroses and their opening hours, and some finding the blood meal they need from undeeted legs, arms, head, feet, and neck. Friends will tell you when there’s a mosquito on your face. Good friends will smack your face for you.

Lastly, the dark gives us our stars. I often need to remind myself that it isn’t that they are out at night, but that they are just no longer obscured by the light of day. The stars are always there, but in day they are dimmed into the blue sky void, and in our city nights given mute by our love of lights which would make Lycurgus roll over in his simple, unmarked grave. That said, they are still there for us to see as we have for as long as life has existed on this earth, but only if we choose to see them. Long ago, looking up and wondering was our choice, and luckily it still is today.

So as your summer progresses and perhaps you find yourself in need of a sigh of relief from woe, I’d invite you to leave your flashlights, glowing rectangles, and worries inside. Step out of doors at dusk and stay into the evening. Hear the music and laughter of a party down the block. Smell the tapestry of worlds that is held in the wind. Feel the mosquitos live because you live. Choose to look up and see infinity in the stars. Know that the dark is not a scary place to be if you learn to see it for what it is and can be.

I’m Patrick Kelly, and I’m Wild About Utah.
 
Credits:

Images: Image Courtesy & Copyright Katarzyna Bilicka, Photographer, all rights reserved
Audio: Contains audio Courtesy & Copyright Friend Weller, Utah Public Radio
Text:    Patrick Kelly, Director of Education, Stokes Nature Center, https://logannature.org
Included Links: Lyle Bingham, Webmaster, WildAboutUtah.org

Additional Reading

Wild About Utah, Posts by Patrick Kelly

Stokes Nature Center in Logan Canyon, https://www.logannature.org/

Abbey, Edward. Desert Solitaire. Touchstone (January 15, 1990) https://www.amazon.com/Desert-Solitaire-Edward-Abbey/dp/0671695886

Western Screech Owl, Overview, All About Birds, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Screech-Owl/overview

Western Screech Owl, Utah Birds, https://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/ProfilesS-Z/WesternScreechOwl.htm
Featured Article by Eric Huish: https://www.utahbirds.org/featarts/2004/OwlBox/OwlBox1.htm
Gallery Pictures: https://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/BirdsS-Z/WesternScreechOwl.htm



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Tiny Owls

Tiny Owls: Northern Pygmy Owl Courtesy US FWS, Bob Miles, Photographer
Northern Pygmy Owl
Courtesy US FWS,
Bob Miles, Photographer

Northern Saw Whet Owl Courtesy US FWS Dave Miller, Photographer Northern Saw Whet Owl
Courtesy US FWS
Dave Miller, Photographer

Western Screech Owl Courtesy & Copyright Lu Giddings Western Screech Owl
Courtesy & Copyright Lu Giddings

They just kept coming. Students, Auduboner’s, friends. They filled the parking lot at the mouth of Birch Canyon, an offshoot of Smithfield Canyon in N. Utah. About two dozen of us begin a march up the canyon as a full moon threatens to pop over the ridge high above us.

Tiny owls that don’t give a hoot were on the menu. Utah Division of Wildlife Resources bird survey coordinator Frank Howe leads the crew with his highly energetic dog bouncing around snow patches we crunch through. After a half-mile or so, Frank pauses by a stand of large cottonwood trees. He opens a Sibley bird app on his phone, explaining we will begin with a repertoire of songs and calls of small owls- northern saw whet, norther pygmies, and western screech owls, hoping not to awaken great horned owls, which might eat their lesser brethren.

We stand silent, awaiting an answer as he begins with the soft bouncing ping-pong ball song of the western screech owl. A few minutes pass and there it is! We are transfixed by its somewhat distant soothing call, then another deeper sound emitted by its male partner. The female slowly works her way in our direction. A few more minutes pass and she’s caught in Frank’s bright flashlight beam. Soft oohs and aahs are emitted by the viewers, most of whom have never heard, nor seen, this tiny owl being before. “This is a mated pair, beginning their courtship rituals and soon to be nesting activities.” Frank explains.

After a half hour of enjoying this fine little owl, we saunter on, hoping for a Northern saw whet or Northern pygmy. After another mile, and several toots without an answer, we begin marching back down bathed in moonlight and friendly chatter. Within a few hundred yards of the screech owl, Frank hails a halt and once again plays the saw whet recording. An immediate, barely audible answer follows. We catch a glimpse of bright owl eyes as they briefly land on a branch 30 yards away.

Frank explains both the saw whets and Northern pygmy’s will migrate to higher elevations for nesting in coniferous forests as the snow recedes. All three of these smallish owls are cavity nesters, preying mostly on small mammals, birds, and large insects. When they feel threatened, they will elongate their bodies to resemble a tree branch. The saw whet will even cover its front with a wing for added camouflage.

In a good prey year, the saw whet will kill several mice in quick succession and store them for later feeding. N. pygmy’s eat only the brains of birds they capture and the soft abdomen of large insects. They can carry prey twice their own weight. Bizarre behaviors for these little demons!

Thank you Frank for an unforgettable moonlight stroll!

Jack Greene for Bridgerland Audubon and I’m wild about the Utah Wilds and its tiny demonic owls!

Credits:
Pictures: Northern Pygmy Owl, Courtesy US FWS, Bob Miles, Photographer
Northern Saw Whet Owl: Courtesy US FWS, Dave Miller, Photographer
Western Screech Owl: Courtesy & © Copyright Lu Giddings, Photographer
Audio: Courtesy & Copyright Kevin Colver, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections as well as J. Chase and K.W. Baldwin, https://upr.org/
Text: Jack Greene, Bridgerland Audubon, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/
Additional Reading: Lyle W Bingham, Webmaster, and Jack Greene, Author, Bridgerland Audubon, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading:

Jack Greene’s Postings on Wild About Utah, https://wildaboututah.org/author/jack/

Northern Pygmy Owl, Overview, All About Birds, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Pygmy-Owl/overview

Northern Saw Whet Owl, Overview, All About Birds, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Saw-whet_Owl/overview

Western Screech Owl, Overview, All About Birds, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Screech-Owl/overview

Northern Pygmy Owl, Utah Birds, https://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/ProfilesL-R/NorthernPygmyOwl.htm
Featured Article by Paul Higgins: https://www.utahbirds.org/featarts/2006/NorthernPygmyOwl.htm
Gallery Pictures: https://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/BirdsL-R/NorthernPygmyOwl.htm

Northern Saw Whet Owl, Utah Birds, https://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/ProfilesL-R/NorthernSawWhetOwl.htm
Gallery Pictures: https://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/BirdsL-R/NorthernSawWhetOwl.htm

Western Screech Owl, Utah Birds, https://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/ProfilesS-Z/WesternScreechOwl.htm
Featured Article by Eric Huish: https://www.utahbirds.org/featarts/2004/OwlBox/OwlBox1.htm
Gallery Pictures: https://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/BirdsS-Z/WesternScreechOwl.htm

Posted on

At Home in the Dark

At Home in the Dark: Western Screech Owl Fledgling Courtesy and Copyright Katarzyna Bilicka, Photographer
Western Screech Owl Fledgling
Courtesy & © Katarzyna Bilicka, Photographer
All year I wait for the summer evenings. All year I long for the oddity of ‘warm and dark,’ of trilling owls flickering from treetop to treetop, and for the scent of hot baked earth cooling as on a sill. Summer evenings evoke in me joy in being out of doors, living within the intact Eden which lies just below our own preconceptions, and deepening my appetite for life. Summer evenings, those dark arid cradles of Utah’s providence, have other benefits, too.

It’s in the dark that you can live in the footsteps of local literatos. We can heed the words of Utah’s Ed Abbey, that: “There’s another disadvantage to the use of the flashlight: like many other mechanical gadgets it tends to separate a man from the world around him. If I switch it on my eyes adapt to it and I can see only the small pool of light it makes in front of me; I am isolated. Leaving the flashlight in my pocket where it belongs, I remain a part of the environment I walk through and my vision, though limited, has no sharp or definite boundary.”

It is also in the dark that we can allow our eyes a rest from glowing rectangles, and for the rest of our navigational senses to pick up slack. Our ears listen for how sound meanders in the landscape, detecting the clitter clatter of dogs on the deck, or chickens working their scratch. Our nose picks up the scent of a neighbor’s firepit to the east, and when the wind shifts the humidity from another neighbor’s evening watering to the west.

It is in the dark that we can also learn to see that we share spaces with corpuscularities and nocturalites. Those trilling owls, Western Screech Owls to be exact, who emerge from their deadstand cavities and prowl for rodenta. When one spots a human watching it, it watches back, then dances a shimmy-rumba-polka. I imagine that it’s waiting for us to communicate, too.

The dark also brings the insects galore which fill the nights making good on their pollination out of the heat of the day, playing odds with the primroses and their opening hours, and some finding the blood meal they need from undeeted legs, arms, head, feet, and neck. Friends will tell you when there’s a mosquito on your face. Good friends will smack your face for you.

Lastly, the dark gives us our stars. I often need to remind myself that it isn’t that they are out at night, but that they are just no longer obscured by the light of day. The stars are always there, but in day they are dimmed into the blue sky void, and in our city nights given mute by our love of lights which would make Lycurgus roll over in his simple, unmarked grave. That said, they are still there for us to see as we have for as long as life has existed on this earth, but only if we choose to see them. Long ago, looking up and wondering was our choice, and luckily it still is today.

So as your summer progresses and perhaps you find yourself in need of a sigh of relief from woe, I’d invite you to leave your flashlights, glowing rectangles, and worries inside. Step out of doors at dusk and stay into the evening. Hear the music and laughter of a party down the block. Smell the tapestry of worlds that is held in the wind. Feel the mosquitos live because you live. Choose to look up and see infinity in the stars. Know that the dark is not a scary place to be if you learn to see it for what it is and can be.

I’m Patrick Kelly, and I’m Wild About Utah.
 
Credits:

Images: Image Courtesy & Copyright Katarzyna Bilicka, Photographer, all rights reserved
Audio: Contains audio Courtesy & Copyright Friend Weller, Utah Public Radio
Text:    Patrick Kelly, Director of Education, Stokes Nature Center, https://logannature.org
Included Links: Lyle Bingham, Webmaster, WildAboutUtah.org

Additional Reading

Wild About Utah, Posts by Patrick Kelly

Stokes Nature Center in Logan Canyon, https://www.logannature.org/

Abbey, Edward. Desert Solitaire. Touchstone (January 15, 1990) https://www.amazon.com/Desert-Solitaire-Edward-Abbey/dp/0671695886

Western Screech Owl, Overview, All About Birds, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Screech-Owl/overview

Western Screech Owl, Utah Birds, https://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/ProfilesS-Z/WesternScreechOwl.htm
Featured Article by Eric Huish: https://www.utahbirds.org/featarts/2004/OwlBox/OwlBox1.htm
Gallery Pictures: https://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/BirdsS-Z/WesternScreechOwl.htm



Posted on

Great Horned Owl

Great Horned Owl and Chick Courtesy US FWS George Gentry, Photographer
Great Horned Owl and Chick
Courtesy US FWS
George Gentry, Photographer
No, I did not hear the owl call my name- meaning my number is up and death is imminent according to some native tribes. But I do hear them call. The great horned owl is also referred to as the “hoot owl”. There are few owl species that hoot in our area, and those who do so are extremely rare.

Great horned owls are great in stature- second only to great grays among N. American owls. Further, they are fierce predators and valiant protectors of their young. Don’t mess with their nest!

Great Horned Owl Chick Courtesy US FWS Gary Stolz, Photographer
Great Horned Owl Chick
Courtesy US FWS
Gary Stolz, Photographer
Due to its ferocious nature it is often referred to as the “Tiger of the Air”. When established in a territory, the Great Horned Owls drive other owls away, and may eat a few for good measure. They are both nocturnal and diurnal hunters, especially during the breeding season & when they are raising their young. They have a large variety of prey including insects, most small mammals including skunks, foxes, domestic cats, & birds up to size of herons and Redtail hawks. Its prey can often weigh up to 3 times the weight of bird itself.

Bryce King and Michelle Groncki with Winston, a Young Great Horned Owl at the Ogden Nature Center, May 16, 2018 Courtesy & © Lyle Bingham, Photographer
Bryce King and Michelle Groncki with Winston, a Young Great Horned Owl at the Ogden Nature Center, May 16, 2018
Courtesy & © Lyle Bingham, Photographer
The Great Horned Owl is found throughout the Americans, from Alaska & Northern Canada down to the southern most tip of South America. It’s found in woodlands, mountains, deserts, coastal swamps, and urban areas which make it unique amongst owls. There was a pair nesting near the Logan Tabernacle for many years. There is only a single species of Great Horned Owl, though there are a large number of subspecies.

Great Horned owls are often monogamous. They usually nest in old nests made by other raptors, often by Red-Tailed Hawks. They have been known to nest in caves, on cliff ledges, rocky outcrops and in cactuses. They usually start breeding very early in comparison to most owls, often from December to March when hooting reaches its peak.

Winston, a Young Great Horned Owl hopped up on Michelle Groncki's Shoulder May 16, 2018 Courtesy & © Lyle Bingham, Photographer
Winston, a Young Great Horned Owl hopped up on Michelle Groncki’s Shoulder, May 16, 2018
Courtesy & © Lyle Bingham, Photographer
In the wild the life expectancy of Great Horned Owl is from 15 to 20yrs. In captivity, their lifespan is usually from 25 to 30yrs, with the oldest recorded individual reaching 42 years. The Ogden Nature Center had an owl named Chitters, who was near 40 years before its spirit flew off. During its long life as an educational bird, Chitters entertained thousands of students in the Ogden, Davis, and Weber school districts.

Several American Indian tribes believe owls are associated with the souls of the dead. When a virtuous person died, they would become a Great Horned Owl. If wicked, they would become a Barn Owl. The Hopis Indians believed that the Great Horned Owl helped their peaches grow. They were believed to be a symbol of divine wisdom by Creek Indians.

I’m sure glad to have these divine, wise birds in my neighborhood!

Great Horned Owl Courtesy US FWS, Karen Laubenstein, Photographer
Great Horned Owl
Courtesy US FWS, Karen Laubenstein, Photographer
Jack Greene for Bridgerland Audubon Society, and I’m wild about Utah!

Credits:

Images: Courtesy US FWS
Audio: Contains Audio Courtesy and Copyright J. Chase and K.W. Baldwin https://upr.org
Text:     Jack Greene, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading:

Ogden Nature Center, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, US Fish & Wildlife Service, US Bureau of the Interior, https://www.fws.gov/nwrs/threecolumn.aspx?id=2147485206 Last Updated: May 18, 2012

Wright, Becky, Beloved owl ‘Chitters’ at Ogden Nature Center dies, Ogden Standard Examiner, Mar 18, 2013, https://www.standard.net/lifestyle/beloved-owl-chitters-at-ogden-nature-center-dies/article_5f57019c-7279-587e-9983-7b4f5a2d2a48.html

Great Horned Owl, All About Birds, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Horned_Owl/overview