Tonight, I slammed on my brakes to not hit the first owl I have ever seen. As I approached my home it swooped right down in front of my car from stage left. Figuring it was still in the trees adjacent to the yard, I parked the car and got the Mag-light. Besides scientists, who birds at night.
The ground was frozen and I was in a hurry – the Patriots/Eagles Game had just begun – unlikely was my approach to be silent. My birding style does not include flushing, i.e. disturbing birds into flying to see them. Did you know birding used to be practiced with a shotgun and not binoculars? Mm hmm.
I scanned the trees with the beam. After but a few rounds the familiar upright blob of black, that never indicates foliage, said “bird” here. It was neither startled nor hurried. After about thirty seconds it lifted, spread its arms like the picture above, and headed straight toward me. It alighted about twenty feet away on a branch about fifteen feet high. The wing span is vast; it looked to wrap me in a cloak. At first I had a foolish thought that it was heading for me. It’s big, but not that big.
Selfishly, rudely, I kept the beam illuminating it to absorb as many details as possible: size of a Red Tail Hawk, striped along the body, no ears tufts, beak like an owl – i.e. a beak not like a hawk. Thirty more seconds and it had enough. As it flew away it hit a small branch. Birds never hit branches. I guess I won’t shine a cop light in a nocturnal animal’s eyes again anytime soon.
Photo by A.J. Hand and stolen from www.friendsofsherwoodisland.org.
