16 December 2013. Burlington ON. A few months ago I met a young exchange student from Switzerland who, in the course of a wide-ranging conversation, happened to mention her strong interest in birds. Of course that’s bound to catch my attention, I’m ever eager to share, and as a consequence, we’ve made a couple of trips to the bird observatory. That was back in September when it was still T-shirt weather, but she made a comment then that has stayed with me, owls, she said, hold a special place in her heart.
With all the Snowy Owl activity around here lately I felt that it would be negligent of me if I allowed her to miss what might be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see one. I offered, she accepted, and so today we went owling after school. I did a quick check around beforehand and was a little dismayed, I could only find one, either many of them have moved on, or (more likely) now that we have wide expanses of snow and ice everywhere, they’re harder to find. Still, we had one to look at, it was one on the roof of an industrial building, so our after-school trip was a success even though the setting was pretty gritty and access a bit challenging.
Pleased with progress, and to be frank, very much enjoying her evident pleasure at seeing these remarkable birds, I suggested we get back on the highway and make for a distant cemetery, (the dead centre of town) and try for one more species, an Eastern Screech Owl. I gave us a scant twenty percent chance of success but she was quite happy to give it a try, better than doing homework I’m sure. I wrote about this target Screech Owl a month ago, it’s a reliable (well 20% reliable) habitué of a Silver Maple knot-hole, it likes to pop out of his hideaway and take the sun if it can, soaking up whatever warmth there may be.
When we arrived the sun was fading and the owl’s knot-hole was in deep shadow so not surprisingly there was no sign of it. We shrugged and drove away, meandering slowly among avenues of snow-topped granite monuments, looking at promising knot-holes as we went; and in no time we found one. A very obliging red-phase Eastern Screech Owl catching the last drops of sunshine. A wow bird for sure and Bird of the Day; here it is.
What a great day