Owl Anniversary

It is 5 degrees outside this morning and I was just standing at the window, marveling at the birds around our feeder. They're all at maximum fluff in this arctic blast we're experiencing. This reminded me of an upcoming anniversary: it is almost one year ago that the chance of a lifetime presented itself to me - a chance to a see an arctic wonder, the Snowy Owl. Unless I ever manage to reach all of my bucket list goals and travel to the Yukon Territory or some other remote northern location, this was my only chance to see one of these magnificent creatures.

Snowy Owls live and breed in the far north around the Arctic Circle. Their primary food source is lemmings. Most winters, a scattering of Snowy Owls will show up in the lower 48 states; usually first year juvenile birds wandering about. Last winter there was an invasion of the owls due to a crash of the lemming population in their northern habitat. This is a natural phenomenon and it happens now & then. The owls spread to the south seeking prey. They look for terrain reminiscent of their familiar arctic habitat: open plains, airports, and treeless wide open farmlands. Sometimes the bird will stay a few days, other times it will hang out in the same spot for a month or more. Eventually, in all cases, the bird will wander off, back up north. This particular owl stayed at the same farmhouse location for about 3 weeks.
They generally cause quite a stir wherever they show up. Here is an article from our local paper regarding this particular Snowy Owl visit in March of 2012. http://triblive.com/news/1029768-74/owl-shema-snowy-owls-pennsylvania-mdash-west-bird-farm-armstrong#axzz2HILQHuht

I belong to an email listserv about birding in Pennsylvania. Often, reports of rare birds will pop up on the list. I enjoy birding, but I'm not hard core as a lot of my fellow birders are. Some folks will drop everything and drive across the state - or states - for a glimpse of a rarity. Me, not so much! But this owl was within 30 miles of our house, so that proved irresistible. Mr. Curious & I loaded up the camera & binocs and off we went. As we neared the area of the owl sighting, we were remarking how the terrain did resemble a rolling treeless arctic plain. Since it was March, the farmlands were wide open and fallow. I was worried that the owl would be off somewhere across those long fields hunting and we wouldn't see it. Then as we crested a slight rise all my doubts evaporated.

The vehicles lining the country road and parked every which way around a farmhouse! The paparazzi! The thicket of tripods and spotting scopes bristling in the yard! The people with necks straining upwards, binoculars plastered to their eyes! And there, the star of the show - on the roof perched among a sea of owl poop - The Owl!! Its eyes were closed. It sat there seemingly oblivious to the hushed craziness below. It was awesome. I can't describe it any other way. Okay, well, I can: Beautiful. Amazing. Incredible protruding talons. Soft. White. Poufy. BIG.
Here are some photos I managed to take, bracing my camera on Mr. Curious' shoulder, since I didn't have a tripod.

                                                                          Check out those talons!

                                                      Can't believe there's a killer beak in there.

                                                  The famous owl 180 degree head turn.

                                An owl pellet. Owls barf up the indigestible bones & hair of what they've eaten.


Unfortunately, the owl kept its eyes shut the entire time we were there (they have beautiful yellow eyes). But this owl was taking a siesta after its morning meal of meadow voles, according to the farmer who was the lucky host to the bird. Looking at its smooth and thick feathering - even its toes - you can see how it is superbly adapted to live on the tundra. Those feathers trap its body heat and allow it to shrug off temperatures that keep us sequestered indoors huddled in blankets. This owl species is also diurnal - meaning it is active during the day as well as in darkness. Why? Well, since it lives and breeds above the arctic circle, it needs to be flexible - the sun never sets there in summer. What a fascinating bird!
We stayed for maybe 45 minutes, taking pictures and just plain enjoying the experience of seeing it. How I wish I could have seen it open those wings and silently flap off! But that's okay, it made my day (month, year) to see it. As I always say, it doesn't take much to thrill me. Until the next rare bird alert occurs (within an hour's drive, anyway) I'll be quite content with watching the birds in our yard. Nature is so cool!



 

The early risers secret world

  **Note** I wrote the following post before the holidays, however since then my wonderful husband Mr. Curious gave me my coveted night vision scope as a Christmas gift! I decided to go ahead and leave this post as it was - I will write another dedicated to night vision adventures in the future! 

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As I get older, my body seems to do its own thing, and I just try to roll with it. For instance, recently I've been waking up early for no apparent reason. By early, I'm talking 4:00 am. or so. Wide awake. Sigh. So I just go ahead and make coffee and let the dog out. When I go back outside - coffee in hand - to call the dog, I stand there gazing at the sky. If I'm lucky, the sky will be clear (this is Pennsylvania, after all, Land of Perpetual Overcast Dreariness). If the sky is in fact clear, it takes my breath away.

There's something about the pre-dawn silence and the brilliance of millions of stars that makes me shake my head in amazement. The past few mornings, several planets are prominent in the skies above. Saturn is overhead and Venus is in the east. Beautiful! To add to the spectacle, I usually see a meteor or two streak across the sky. And I sometimes hear things in the woods: strange squawks, grumblings, screeches, or yelps. There are surreptitious shuffles in the dry leaves. It's my own personal safari of darkness. Oh, how I yearn for a good pair of night vision goggles!
 
But back to the sky - star and sky-gazing isn't strictly a pre-dawn activity, unless you're weird like me (I do a lot of it at night, too). My favorite internet reference for what's up there is heavens-above.com. This site contains everything you'd want to know about what you see up there. It's easy enough - and free - to register and once you do, the site is tailored to your location, which is necessary for accurate predictions of what you'll see and where. There is a whole-sky chart, which is how I found out which planets I was seeing the other morning. There is info on where to look and when to see the International Space Station passing overhead. My favorite feature of all, though, is the section on Iridium flares. Most people are unaware of these, so this Wikipedia article should be of some help. Using the charts on heavens-above, you can get the timing and the location in the sky of the next iridium flare and easily observe it. WooHoo! Flare time - whatta blast! You will have to get familiar with a few terms, namely altitude and azimuth, but they're easy enough to understand. Besides, it's great fun to toss off nerd-isms in front of company! " Well, you gotta remember your azimuth there, Bob". Haha! As I've mentioned before, it doesn't take much to give me a thrill. But it really is a fun way to pass an evening, although ideally in warmer weather.

This morning it was about 34 degrees. However, if properly bundled up, it isn't so bad. One more fascinating star gazing pastime is to use binoculars to scan the skies. Yes, binoculars, not a telescope. For one thing, I don't own a telescope - though I surely would like one. Bundle that with those night vision goggles and there you have the ultimate gift for Curious Girl! In any case, using binoculars reveals depths upon depths of stars not visible to the naked eye. Galaxies, nebulae, open star clusters - it is truly an astounding sight. When I finish up a session of binocular-gazing, I'm mentally exhausted from mulling over all the possibilities and theories that this infinite spectacle presents to me.

A few tips to keep in mind if you want to try some stargazing: You will get a stiff neck. Laying back in a lounge chair is the most comfortable. Ambient light will mess with your night vision, so turn off the lights inside and out. And, it is of course best to have no moon in the sky. If the moon is up one night, you can time your next evening's session by remembering that the moon rises 50 minutes later every night. Thus, you know you'll have an extra 50 minutes of dark sky the next night before the moon rises and blots out all the juicy details.

 

                                            Not optimal stargazing conditions

But perhaps I should bring myself down to earth a little more and try to figure out what makes those odd noises I mentioned! I think a headlamp would be good start, until someone gifts me those night vision goggles. In the meantime, if you wake up early as I do, bundle up and get on outside for a thrilling adventure, without even leaving your porch!