All About Owls

I saw an owl in the wild for the first time on Saturday.

I’ve seen owls in zoos before but every time it never quite felt right. Captivity takes away so many of the things I like about them, and they just don’t look happy. Then again I guess they naturally look pretty angry most of the time. Anyway, one of the things I most wanted to do this year was see an owl in its natural habitat.

As I posted before, Dad and I are volunteering with Birds in Backyards soon to help keep tabs on Sydney’s Powerful Owl population. We thought we’d try and find one before the project begins in August. I found a recent article somewhere about one that had chosen to live in the Botanical Gardens, near the Opera House. We braved wet conditions to try and spot it.

A ranger took us to the tree (near Goverment House) where their resident owl was known to hang out. They love him, the ranger told us, because he helps them take care of their growing bat problem. Apparently he’s been known to kill bats and not eat them, just tear them up for fun and I suppose hunting practice.

Eventually we saw him. I guess there wasn’t all that much to this moment but I’ll remember it as long as I live. At the foot of the tree we found the famous telltale owl pellets made of regurgitated undigestible animal parts. Amongst them was a clearly visible jawbone and skull. And far up in the tree, there he was. The Powerful Owl was as large and majestic as everything I’d read. In the drizzle of the early morning he sat there quietly hidden from the rest of the world - just keeping an eye on things, biding his time. He swivelled his head around to check us out with those big yellow eyes, and then returned to his sentinel-like post. A family of French tourists happened to be passing by with a small child and I pointed out what I was looking at. They spent a few minutes sharing a moment with us, explaining owls in French to their child.

I like owls. They mean a lot to me for a lot of reasons and I see qualities in them that I admire greatly. 

I’ll keep the blog up to date as the conservation project unfolds.

—art

Powell makes a pow-pow-Powerful Owl

As reported in the Herald yesterday, Sydney’s Birds in Backyards are looking for volunteers to keep tabs on breeding pairs of Powerful Owls. I’ll be vigorously putting my hand up and hoping to document it all on this blog. It delights me to have the opportunity to help out with owl conservation. There’s an ABC interview with Dr. Holly Parsons about the powerful owls project here.

This cartoon was also brought to my attention:

“I rejoice that owls exist.”

- Thoreau

MF OWL

That’s just hot.

You can buy one here. I’m really tempted.

“It’s gonna be owlright”

The Northern District Times ran a story this week about a Powerful Owl hit by a car in Epping and successfully rehabilitated soon afterwards. Kudos to the Crawford family and the North Ryde Veterinary Clinic for saving an owl’s life. Excellent work.

Powerful owls are really cool. They’re HUGE, they hoot, they eat entire possums, and they live in my neighbourhood. I really should go and hang out in the bush sometime.

(photo credit)

Owls for iPhone

I just got an iPhone and discovered two delightful owl apps. Audubon Owls boasts a listing of every North American owl complete with pictures, facts, and recordings of their calls as recorded in various regions. If you spot an owl in North America you can search for it by wing shape, size, region, etc. There are also informative videos and quizzes to keep your owl knowledge sharp.

Owl Pellet Activites allows you to dissect owl pellets, identify the bones you find, and upload the data with your location — contributing to a map of what owls are eating and where, which you can also view. Brilliant.

Good news in the owl kingdom

Owls are superb. Here are two good owl-related things that have happened recently.

* A construction site for a new house in Santa Clara CA discovered an owl nest with eggs on the premises. All is well; wildlife services are going to incubate the eggs properly and build a new nest box home for the mother & father owls. Yay!

* The International Festival of Owls has taken place in Houston, Minnesota and was a splendid success. In the picture we see Samantha the great horn owl eating a mouse in front of fascinated onlookers; “walls covered in owl silhouettes and drawings, and rows of kids covered in owl face paint, with their parents, all watching her”. Few things make me happier than owl appreciation. This is a great festival with a perfect balance of fun and serious owl activities. I hope to attend someday.

Huzzah! I leave you for today with this:

Luis Moreno

More owl-related bad news today.

Luis Moreno is an asshole footballer who plays for Panama’s Deportivo Pereira. During a recent game, the opposing team’s owl mascot flew onto the field and was hit by the ball. The referee stopped the game while the poor thing was flailing on its back. Moreno forcefully kicked the owl off the field and it later died from shock. I saw the footage and it’s disgusting. The crowd jeered “murderer” for the rest of the game and Moreno had to be escorted out by the cops.

What can I say? This is unconscionable behaviour and he deserves jail. Owls are beautiful, rare creatures who deserve respect and protection from humans. Let’s hope he is punished to the full extent of the law. I encourage you to make your feelings known to his team.