JUNE'S LILAC CORNER -
BIRD OF THE MONTH
The Horned Owl
by June Estelle Cash
Originally written for the
SNOQUALMIE PASS TIMES
November 1997 Volume 3 Issue 11
This bird gets its name from its two tufts of feathers on the head that resemble horns. A dead tree stump makes a good perch for the night.
Horned Owl
He is big, but how big? Stretch your
arms out sideways as far as you can. Your stretch probably reaches 46 or 48 inches, but the wing span of the Horned Owl
is 55 inches.
Called the "Tiger of the Air"
because it is such a powerful hunter,
it makes its nest deep in the woods.
You will see them when you travel in the woods of
the North West of the U S A and in the East Coast
in the wooded areas that are left. You will find them in Canada also. You will hear the melancholy "whoo-whoo" of the Horned Owl at night in these woods.
Horned Owl - released near Bellingham WA
The Horned owl is the most common, and the largest. Their call, "who-who-whooo" is so well known that most people believe that all owls hoot. This is not true. There are several kinds of horned owls in which a number of them do not hoot, but others which have a whistling call, and still others which have a shrill screech like a high-pitched laugh. Some even sound like the Banshee that so many people were afraid of in early Medieval days with unearthly haunting calls.
Horned owls are large birds standing about two feet tall, which feed mostly on rabbits. In the time of our country's beginnings they surely ate as much on the wild turkeys, as well as woodchucks, and beavers, snakes, mice, skunks, and raccoons. There was a time when their fondness for rabbits put them on the rabbit hunters list. In the Western states, however when the problems of fewer places to log trees became apparent, the horned owl was thought of as helpful. It kept the unwanted pesty rabbits and crows in check, as well as snakes.
On a dead stump, I have read, a horned owl listens. When he hears something, he will turn his head. All the way around. It looks, they say, like it is making a complete circle. He quickly moves, grabbing a snake with its grip in his beak just below the head, while the tail is safely held in its claws. Another owl who has heard the commotion will fly down from its perch and quickly tries to take the snake from the first owl. The first owl puffs himself up to twice his size so big and frightening that the second owl is scared away. Now he settles down to eating the snake.
Meanwhile, that second owl is off to do her hunting. A sleeping crow? Or wait for an opossum or skunk? She waits. A skunk passes by. With a swift, silent swoop she will lunge at the skunk. The skunk sprays her ! with its only defense system - an A W F U L smell - but most birds do not have a sense of smell. Neither does the owl. She captures it and eats it.
Owls have to do a lot of hunting, especially when their babies are hatched, as they then have double duty. Two eggs in a clutch. The Horned Owl may often be raising one young one while laying an egg to be hatched in its own time.
Whatever owls catch, they eat all up, skin, fur, bones and feathers. HOURS LATER, they will cough up pellets of what could not be digested...fur, feathers, bones. Be on the watch for the pellets. For if you see some, that is a sure indication an owl is near by in the neighborhood.
A final note: Did you know that the parent Horned Owls will destroy their nest when the young are able to balance themselves in the fork of the tree?
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In the book of Job 30. v. 29 Job comments that "I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls." Again, God the LORD asks Job, in Job 37.v.26 "doth the hawk fly by wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south? v. 27 Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high? v.28 She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place."
The Lord our God, the Living God, has made this world, and birds are very much a part of it. Each bird has its ways, and God set it up that way. We need to encourage the birds, as we are stewards of that small portion on which we live. Without the birds, we would probably be overrun by rats, rabbits, and snakes. It is true there is not much forest left, but what we have - whether in the city near homes, or whether in the woods, away where we only go on vacations or trips, it all affects us.
As a Christian I believe we ought to remember thankfully for God's provision of such birds as the horned owl.
Psalm 150.6 LET EVERY THING THAT HATH BREATH PRAISE THE LORD. PRAISE YE THE LORD.
