Barred Owl, with a dash of milkwort

 

A Barred Owl looks at the photographer from atop a broken-off tree. I spotted the owl as it flew through the forest with a squirrel, then plunged into this snag. After a few minutes it popped up, sans squirrel. I'm sure there are a few hungry chicks in there that just got a meaty treat. Shortly thereafter, I saw two young Black Bears high in a tree, but alas, no images. Once they saw that I made them, they scrambled down with surprising speed. Thanks to Paul Speyser for a brief tour of this amazing park. Watoga State Park, Pocahontas County, West Virginia, today.

The remarkable flowers of Fringed Milkwort (Polygala paucifolia) resemble elfin orchids. Dry roadbanks in the forests of Watoga State Park were peppered with the magenta beauties. Companions included Pink Lady's-slipper (Cypripedium acaule), Trailing Arbutus (Epigaea repens), and Dwarf Iris (Iris verna).

Barred owlets

Last Monday, I got an email from my editor at the Columbus Dispatch, Cindy Decker, telling me of some special residents of her neighborhood. As she lives along a well-wooded ravine only fifteen minutes from my place, I buzzed over that evening, camera in hand.

It took no time at all to locate the hootiferous beasts - Barred Owls! Here, the male gazes inscrutably at your narrator. These owls, as we shall better see, are quite used to people and pay us little mind.

The female, who was perched nearby, curiously watches some people walk below her lofty perch.

As Columbus' neighborhoods, especially in the Clintonville area, have aged, so have their trees. In the last decade or so, forest species such as Barred Owls and Red-shouldered Hawks have become commonplace, especially in the heavily wooded ravines. Even Broad-winged Hawks are now nesting in some areas.

Yes, I know - he/she's cute! This is one of three owlets that the parents were supervising. I probably would have gone over just to see the adult owls, but when Cindy said that the owlets were newly fledged and clambering about the trees, I was there in a shot. Yesterday was Earth Day, and I was honored to be asked to give a program that night for Columbus Audubon. And thrilled when about 270 people showed up! I started the talk off by sharing this owl family, and as soon as I put up the above photo, the predictable "oohs", "aahs" and "cute!" comments commenced. I'm thinking, "you wouldn't be saying those things if you were a white-footed mouse!" To a small rodent, snake, or amphibian this owlet is a fuzzy Freddy Krueger in training.

As noted, the owls were hardly bothered by our presence. As I snapped this owlet's photo, it dozed off. When it snapped back to attention, it began issuing rather shrill keening begging calls, as were its siblings.

Word has passed through the neighborhood grapevine, and there must have been several dozen people that came by to see the owls in the hour that I was there. Everyone is quite excited to have them as neighbors. Lots of kids were in tow, and gawking at the owls, too.

I'm sure that while I was giving my Earth Day talk yesterday, many more people were ogling these Barred Owls as the sun dropped.

Barred Owls are great ambassadors for Nature - far better than most of us could hope to be. I hope that these owlets were the "spark birds" for some of those kids that got to see them.

Barred Owl

Photo: Gary Meszaros

I've got a wealth of photos and subjects to share - that's nearly always the case - but couldn't resist promptly posting this wonderful photo of a Barred Owl, Strix varia. The bird was imaged by master nature photographer Gary Meszaros near Cleveland. Barred Owls are faring well in much of Ohio, the beneficiaries of an overall maturation of Ohio's forests. Even well treed neighborhoods often have their complement of these fabulous hooters, and people often are curious about them, especially when they hear the unearthly squalls and hoots that a talkative owl can produce.

As said famed bird researcher Arthur Cleveland Bent: "The antiphonal hootings of a pair of these owls, heard at any time of the day or night, will hold the hearer spellbound; when heard close at hand at night, they are fairly startling, as if a pair of demons were fighting".

Demons battling in the backyard are sure to arouse the curiosity of the average suburbanite :-) Thanks to Gary for sharing his work.