Cheryl is off riding horses in the Cascade Mountains with a friend so I am on Daddy Duty for a few days. No big deal it's great time for the three of us to bond and celebrate "Boys Club". this usually means some sort of BBQ'ed beef dinner followed by wrestling in the living room until the rug burns stop the action or dad gets tired. After school the boys were delighted to spend a few hours at a friends house chasing frogs and playing games. I stopped in and loaded them up for the ride home. We covered the days events in typical boy fashion, "How was school?", "Good.", "Wha'ja do today?", "Stuff.", "Any homework?", "Nope, can we play video games when we get home?", "Nope." End of conversation.
I turned off the road onto our gravel drive, rolled along slowly doing our usual check of the field for deer, when all of a sudden a HUGE bird swooped in front of the car, his mottled brown and white wings blocking the windshield. He pulled up as if to pounce on his prey, tucked in his wings and with one powerful flap shot straight up to light on a cedar branch not more than fifteen feet in front of us. I was thinking, " I wonder if he sees the big green shiny thing following him?"
We had interrupted a hunt. That's him in the center of the shot, not the best image but the best I could do at a moments notice. He seemed content to hang out for the photo opp. I think all birds of prey know they are cool looking. We have a couple resident owls in the nearby woods. We hear them often, their hoots are an eerie romantic sound that oftentimes will stop a game of catch or "drown the ants" or "hide from Gabe" so we can listen, smile and revel in the wildness of the moment. But to be this close, to see him in flight, to interrupt his dinner, this was a treat and became the topic of discussion for the night. the Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds we quickly found and an identification was established; EMPEROR PENGUIN! "No sorry Gabe, I think you have the wrong book" Of the sixteen to choose from it came down to just two possibilities: a Hawk-Owl or a Spotted Owl. Now, the Hawk-Owl (Surnia ulula), who's name implies an identity issue, has wings roughly similar to a short-winged hawk, sports yellow eyes and tends to roam the Canadian portion of North America. His Spotted brother, or cousin (Strix occidentalis), sports dark eyes, is "dark brown with spots above and barring below" and has a much larger wing span. So here we are staring at the critter that, in this neck of the world, has been the controversial icon of anti-logging protests spurring such things as T-shirts with Spotted Owl recipes, small cans labeled "Smoked Spotted Owl", and various other trinkets communicating displeasure with the decision to force commercial logging to stop.
Gabe lets out a, "Shoot it dad!" Not this one little buddy we best leave it be and enjoy the moment. Besides the Audubon Society says they keep the rodent population down and mom will like that idea better than having a protected species in her freezer.
"Don't you have homework?", "Nope.", "Right...let's go get dinner started".
Tony