Folks, last night I was treated to an absolute delight -- a guided tour of the "home" of a family of Forest Park great horned owls, and a delightful side benefit, an incredible lecture/discussion of these marvelous creatures.
My host, guide and teacher was Mark Glenshaw, relatively new Dogtown resident, but someone who has been following this particular family of owls for two years now. And I do mean following them is DETAIL.
Mark visits them very often, has given them names (papa is Charles, mama is Sarah, and this year's one baby is called Owlet since Mark doesn't know its gender). Last year there were two owlets.
We met at the boathouse at 7 PM and walked across the street. The sun was still bright, but setting. Mark first oriented me to the area and sort of modelled for me the behavior I was to use including, speaking softly, moving slowly from cover of tree to tree, giving respectful distance to the owls. He showed me places he often finds them, and we even walked around some of the pine trees where he has found droppings from them and last night he even found a very lovely FEATHER from one, which he carefully replaced on the ground explaining to me that one cannot possess or own such an owl feather without special permissions.
We had at least 1/2 hour before it was much likely they would show themselves and Mark gave me a great deal of information about these birds which mate for life and tend to stake out a space and make it HOME. They begin to nest in the early winter and try to have their owlets ready to leave home by about August of the following year. At that time the owlets are FORECED out to seek their own territory and mates, and when winter comes the home couple again mates and have new owlets.
Soon Mark found one of them in a large bushy tree. We were on Government Hill (the World's Fair Pavilion is at the top) and this hill is torn apart by construction at this time. Right at the very edge of the eastern woods was this very large leafy tree. It took a solid 10 minutes of him guiding my searching until I found the owl (it turns out it was Sarah, the mother, but we couldn't tell yet). There is no way in the world I would EVER have found that owl without his guidance and expertise.
We watched the owl from this and that perspective, moving around below slowly and quietly.
After a while there was a flash of movement and the owl we had been watching DID NOT MOVE, the movement came from elsewhere and a huge owl flew by, sort of circled us and landed right above our head in the very tree we were standing under. We had to move out 10 feet from the trunk to even see the owlet which was on a sort of dead branch not more than 15 foot above out heads. It was an awesome experience and the owl was just staring at us, seemingly staring holes in us.
We then checked the tree we had been watching and now Mark could identify Sarah as the other owl. Both Sarah and owlet are about the same size. Charles never made an appearance last night. Where were you Charlie?
Owlet stayed there a while and began to give out these cries of hunger, very faint little calls, softer than some of the hand-sized birds I watch every day. Before too long Sarah took off and the two of them flew into a clump of pine trees we had been under a while before. We followed, trying to get them back into sight. Again they took off, now flying back toward the deep woods, but, so very very kind of them, and no doubt in my honor, they stopped in an absolutely dead tree without a leaf. Two high branches stuck straight up in the air like sticks in the ground. Sarah perched on one and owlet, rather comically, sort of tottered on another. Soon owlet moved down a few feet to a slightly larger branch, but still one that stuck straight up in the air.
We were no more than 30 feet from them and they just sat they looking at us for at least 10 minutes, but owlets cries of hunger and remonstration continued pleading with mom to get it some food. After a while they took off and flew across Government Hill. I figured that was it, gone.
Oh, thinking that just shows that I knew almost nothing about Mark. Off we go at a near trot across the hill to the other side, very close to the eastern wall of the zoo. And by golly, Mark found the again. It was now getting dark and I was sacrificing large amounts of blood to mosquitoes that must have been the size of robins they way they ate me.
But we hung in. Soon one bird flew off toward the Grand Basin and we assumed that was probably Sarah in search of owlet's dinner. Then, in an exciting moment that Mark told me was extremely unusual, owlet (presumably) landed on the GROUND and seemed hunting something there. But, it was getting dark and we were 30-40 yards up the hill. Soon the owl flew back into the clump of trees and we headed down under them.
We searched all over but couldn't find the owl and the bats were flying all over the place and the mosquitoes were just eating me to no end. It was fully dark.
Mark then suggested we cross BACK OVER THE HILL to the original tree and see if Charles turned up. But it was 9 PM, pitch black and I had lost lots of blood, so I begged off, saying since we were quite near the zoo bus stop for the Hampton bus, I was going to call it a night. After a moment Mark said he was going to do the same thing (which I think he was unlikely to have done were he alone), and we walked the few yards to the bottom of the hill and over to the bus stop. Happily there is a bench at that bus stop and we had a lovely chat waiting about 15 minutes for the Hampton bus. Mark, like me, is not a car person.
I got off with Mark at Hampton and Clayton and we continued our chat and my education until we got to his house at Clayton and Crescent. I continued on home, got my second shower of the day, and treated myself to a lovely bowl of fresh fruit and some nice iced ouzo to cool my pallet.
It was an extraordinary night -- following an extraordinary day (I am now going to do a flash back to the daytime) -- and I really appreciate Mark's generosity and kindness in allowing me to join him and in doing such an awesome job in educating me. He has left an open invitation to others who might wish to see these extraordinary denizens of the park. Let me know if you want to get in touch with Mark and I'll forward any e-mails to him.
Now, back to the day. As most of you know by now I try to walk 4 miles a day. I had done my four miles in the morning, and after the visit with Mark (and I rode the bus both there and back) I still ended up with OVER 7 MILES yesterday. A but exhausting.
I started out after a lovely morning with the Dogtown morning crowd at Cairdeas Coffee House, by being dropped off over at the wet lands area. I had not been to that area in a couple months, preferring the Kennedy Forest and Kennedy Savannah area. The first bird I stirred up was a really unusual creature a juvenile green heron. There are just dozens of beautiful green herons in the wetlands area. But this was not like them at all. It was at least twice as tall, closer to three times the size. But I had my Sibley field guide with me and there was my much taller bird, a juvenile of the species. I have since learned that the shorter more stubby green heron adults can extend their neck like the youngster's but only do it in hunting. (Another bit of Mark’s knowledge, shared with me.)
I wandered around an saw another bird I didn't know. I couldn't find it in my guide with, but fortunately for me another Dogtown resident, Steve Buback, was working in the savannah area with two volunteers. Neither of the volunteers knew the bird but pointed to Steve. I introduced myself to him and asked about the bird, and fortunately just at that moment one landed on a sun flower about 20 yards away. He asked if that was the bird. He wasn't using binoculars and I couldn't even SEE the bird without mine. It was it. He identified it as an eastern kingbird.
Two new birds for my record. I then found another which Shawn Clubb later helped me identify as a brown thrush, and finally the highlight of the day (until the evening's owls), I came across two weird birds who were screaming at either other in the loudest noises I have ever heard birds make. At first I was on the eastern side of a savannah-like area east from the Deer Lake Savannah. I crossed the bridge at Union to the savannah area and there are a bunch of dead trees in a swampy area. These two flew across the waters to two of those dead trees right in front of me, as though they came to perform their "fight" (if that is what it was) right in front of me. They stayed there screaming while I got long long looks at them with my binoculars. But, I still couldn't find them in my field guide and so when I got home I wrote to Shawn who quickly pointed to the birds which I knew in a second when I found them in the guide -- they were belted kingfishers and I can't wait to see them again. Spectacular birds.
I saw another 4-5 birds I couldn't identify. I'm so bad at that. When you have a guide book with hundreds and hundreds of birds in it, how in the world do you find a bird you have no idea what it is? Very hard for me.
But, little by little I'm learning.
Yesterday was really an exceptional day and today I am taking a very much more leisurely day. I'll get my walking in, but not in the park today.
I did get on-line this morning and have purchased a much nicer pair of binoculars than the ones I currently have, and now I'm headed downtown to get myself a nicer hat for wearing in the woods for bird hunting. The hat is for three reasons:
I'm going underground and learning to wear brown and soft green colors in the woods.
I'm torn between the two very different areas. The birds in the wetlands areas are so different from Kennedy Forest and Kennedy Savannah. And, since I've spent much less time at the wetlands this year, I am likely to find many NEW birds (new to me) there than I am in Kennedy Forest. But, I so love Kennedy Forest.
Hard choices.
But there are 7 days in each week.....
Bob Corbett
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