About the Screech Owls

Photo by Lincoln Karim

Two e-mails came this morning. One was from from Chris, a member of the North Woods owl-prowlers who comes accompanied by a well-behaved border collie named Fig. She sent a report. One from Cathy, with a poem:

Hi Marie--

I thought the rainstorm would interrupt but I caught the fly-out last night. All five were out by 7:56, hanging around in the trees above the waterfall for about fifteen minutes. There was much launching of poop and pellets, lots of dancing, some whinnying. They were in the pine tree again this morning and I was able to collect several pellet samples which I can contribute to the examination. There is clear bone matter in some of the pellets and I wish we could ask who it belongs to. (Are the parents still feeding the young?)

The bobbing dance, by the way, according to another guide, is a way the owls improve their three-dimensional visual concept of what they're looking at. So when they do this while facing us, they're trying to have a better look!

[PS from Marie: re examination: We're planning to analyze the pellets ands try to identify what mammal bones we csn find there.

Marie,
Thought I'd pass this poem along in case you haven't yet seen it. It takes my breath away, much as the fly out did that I enjoyed with you and others a couple of weeks ago. Best,

Cathy Unsino

Screech Owl

All night each reedy whinny
from a bird no bigger than a heart
flies out of a tall black pine
and, in a breath, is taken away
by the stars. Yet, with small hope
from the center of darkness
it calls out again and again.

Ted Kooser

Poet Laureate of the United States
in Delights and Shadows