WORDS OF A FEATHER Story and photos by HEATHER SHIRLEY If you let it, nature will always beguile you. I love both the surprises and the rhythms inherent in nature. One thing I count on every year is that a pair of barred owls that live near me produce a couple of owlets. I delight in an annual search to spot the fluffy, football-shaped babes as they venture out of their nest to begin exploring the world. I am in awe and wowed every time I am lucky enough to see an owl. Wow, owls! Wowls. Since long ago, people have been captivated by owls. Perhaps because they are active at night and therefore rarely seen, we are both fascinated by them and may even fear them. Ancient Greeks associated owls with Athena, goddess of wisdom and warfare. Owls symbolized her cunning strategy. In Celtic mythology, owls represented a range of themes spanning beauty, fertility, betrayal and deception. Egyptian hieroglyphs depict owls as symbols of royalty. Native Americans viewed them as ghosts, messengers from beyond the grave, harbingers of death and malevolence. J.K. Rowling, of course, employed them as brave messengers at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Owls are highly specialized birds, and it’s possible that all their unique features are what Wowls led to their mystical status. They have twice as many vertebrae in their necks as humans, thus can turn their heads in a Barred owl 270-degree radius. Like humans, their eyes are situated on the front of their faces, next to each other. (In contrast, many other bird species have an eye on each side of their heads.) Owls see much as we do, with binocular vision, which means they synchronize the sight and information from each eye simultaneously, seeing one clear image. This helps with overall perception of the world around them, as well as judging distance. Facial feathers generally form a disc shape on their faces, and this helps funnel sound to their ears. The ears are hidden under feathers on each side of their heads. They are large and offset from each other. This asymmetry improves hearing and enables owls to triangulate where prey is. Owls have terribly strong talons, which they use to attack, stun and suffocate their prey. Their wings are large and have specialized feathers along the edges so their flight is silent and stealthy. With all these special attributes, it’s no wonder humans have endowed owls with mystical powers. In New Jersey, there are six species of owls that are fairly common: great horned, barred, barn, eastern screech, short-eared and longeared. Sometimes there is a phenomenon called an irruption, which means that owls may travel beyond their usual range to follow prey or weather, so additional species such as snowy owls can occasionally be seen in the Garden State. Owls are not easy to see. They’re nocturnal; they fly silently. They do, however, call to one another, so it’s possible to hear them. When I used to live in Morristown, I would lie awake at night, my insomnia rewarded by being able to listen in on a pair of great horned owls hooting back and forth to each other. “Who’s awake? Me, too,” they seemed to say, in low, mournful tones. Barred owls are more upbeat, saying, “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?” Screech owls don’t really screech—but barn owls do! Instead, screech owls call out in a sweet, soft whinny. If you are lucky, you may come across pellets, another sign that owls are nearby. Owls swallow their prey whole, but they can’t digest bits like fur, bones or insect scales. All of this gets compressed into a mass called a pellet, which the owl regurgitates and spits out. Scan the QR code with your phone’s camera to hear the sounds of a barred owl. If you come across something that looks like a tight wad of brownish gray fur, it may be a pellet. By the time you find one, it will likely be dry. You can pry it open and poke through it to discover what the owl ate. You may see the skull of a rodent or a bird, the backbone of a lizard, who knows what? Gross to some, fascinating to others, pellets are a sign that an owl is probably roosting nearby. Still eager for more owls? Why not encourage them to move into your yard? Owls want to roost in trees that provide dense cover — they prefer evergreens. They need space to nest and raise young. Some species build nests or take over the nests of other birds. Others nest in cavities that occur naturally in trees or were drilled out by woodpeckers. They also readily move into nest boxes people erect for them. Check with your nearest New Jersey Audubon center—the one at Scherman Hoffman Wildlife Sanctuary in Bernardsville is wonderful—to buy nest boxes and get advice for where to place them in your yard. You may find yourself stewards of your own wowls and wowlets, and you’ll surely be doing good deeds by helping nature thrive. 38 Barbara Anne Dillon, O.D., P.A. License # OA 05188 OM 0373 180 Howard Boulevard, Suite 18 Mount Arlington, NJ 07856 (973) 770-1380 Fax (973) 770-1384 • Comprehensive Eye Exams • Contact Lenses and Eyeglasses • Treatment for Eye Disease We’re open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday LAKE HOPATCONG NEWS <strong>Midsummer</strong> <strong>2023</strong> AQUATIC VEGETATION CONTROL Providing lake and pond management solutions with SCIENCE for over 33 years. 973-948-0107 www.lakemgtsciences.com Branchville, NJ
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