On the Prowl for Owls

When I was a kid I wanted to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Leonardo, in fact. I wanted to be witty and athletic and be able to fight bad guys with swords. I also sometimes wanted to be Spiderman, to climb walls and shoot webs and stop evildoers.

Turtles and spiders are unlikely heroes; when I tell school kids that turtles crawl into mud and hibernate in a controlled state of hypothermia, they don’t really know what to think. Turtles aren’t particularly captivating. And spiders… well… I’d like to tell them arachnid hibernation, but they are too busy screaming and running. I try to convince them that spiders are awesome, but I rarely succeed.

But there are some animals that truly seem like superheroes, complete with super powers precisely honed to defy reality. They are mystical creatures from the other side of the wardrobe. Kindergarteners (and I!) dream about having their powers.

I wish I could fly!
I wish I had super-incredible vision!
I wish I were invisible!

I am starstruck by a celebrity that I rarely see. She lives in a world of shadow and starlight, a world that demands cunning, and perhaps madness. The true owner of the night does not yip or growl, and has no need for running or pouncing. She spends 90% of her time in silence, waiting listening. When she spots her prey, she makes not a sound in the whole transaction, and none but the mouse ever know she exists. She is the ultimate bandit.

But who is she?
Who, hoo-hoo?



In the forest, many animals take advantage of darkness for protection. Mice venture from their snow tunnels in search of grass, protected by shadow. Snowshoe hares cross great distances at night, hopping through a landscape of snow and stars. But the owl uses that same darkness for her own means. We might never see this feathery shadow, but we might see signs of her presence, like wing marks in the snow after they have snatched up a mouse, or owl pellets they have spit up under their favorite roosts where they sit to digest. We might look for them peering back at us from the trees, but we won’t hear them if they fly by…

Special fringed feathers on her wings disrupt airflow, making her completely silent in flight. Her ears are specially placed- one higher than the other- so that she can locate prey precisely just by hearing it. Her huge eyes have special retinas to see in the dark. They are so specialized, they are not even eyeballs, but rather elongated tubes, which channel images and essentially work as a telescope. Since the eyes are such a unique shape, they can’t turn or roll, so the owl has to move its whole head to look around.

Right now, she’s out there somewhere, silent as a ghost, unmoving as a gargoyle.
But this season, the owls of the Eagle Valley can be more than just figments of your imagination or ghosts of the night. With a warm jacket and a bit of planning, you can actually encounter these dark angels. This valley is home to several owl species, including the small Western Screech-Owl, the round-faced Boreal, and the cunning giant known as the Great Horned Owl. January is the time when Great Horned owls are establishing territory and finding a mate, so they will be vocal and active this month. If you go out at night into the woods, into farm fields, or even in your neighborhood, you can hear them hooting, or even call one in.

So go out to where you think owls might be, and just listen. Maybe you could read Jane Yolen’s “Owl Moon” to your kids, and go out under a full moon. Breathe softly. Listen to the wind in the pines and the sound of snow grains on the willows. Wait longer than you think you should. Then, call out into the night like the shadowy ghost you are seeking, “Hoo-hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo-hoo, hoo.”

Once you hear an owl, cup your hands behind your ears and rotate your hands. You’ll be surprised at how well this helps you locate where the sound is coming from. Or do what an owl does, and move around silently, listening to the sound and triangulating it’s location by listening from a few different places.

Of course, like in anything worth doing, there is no guarantee of encountering an owl. But if you open your ears to the sky, let the starlight fill your eyes, and feel the beauty of the night, there is a 100% guarantee of “success.”

Gore Range Natural Science School offers an owl program once a month as part of our Nature at Night series at the Nature Discovery Center on Vail Mountain. We seek to evoke a sense of wonder and inspire environmental stewardship through natural science education. See more at gorerange.org.
The Breeding Bird Atlas is a volunteer-driven effort to catalog local birds. If you would like to volunteer, or for more information, visit http://www.cobreedingbirdatlasii.org/.