disgruntledowl

This past weekend, Mr. Owl and I went a day-long winter raptor tour led by guides from our local Audubon Society. We went on a nine-hour epic quest all over Eastern Massachusetts, from Newburyport down to Middleboro, in search of birds of prey. We've been on a lot of owl prowls and haven't even heard a wild owl on those trips, so it was a real thrill to be able to see:

• Bald eagles, young and old, swooping over rivers
• A big black raven by the roadside
• Northern harriers, rough-legged hawks, and short-eared owls all hunting in a field at sunset
• Red tailed hawks everywhere
• A Snowy Owl near a runway at Logan Airport, another in a coastal marsh, and a third one in a unexpected location

 

We were lucky to have the extremely experienced ornithologist  Norman Smith and several other knowledgeable Audubon staff leading our group. Smith is well known in birding circles for his Snowy Owl rescue activities, in which he catches owls that are hunting prey at Logan and releases them at beaches on Boston's North or South Shores. (Sadly, owls found at airports in other places are sometimes shot to prevent them from being a hazard to planes.) Though I should have suspected it a little, I was surprised and delighted to find that he had secreted a rescue owl in one of the tour vans. When we got to Salisbury Beach, he took her out of her crate and allowed us to see her up close. He was able to keep her incredibly calm even though people from all over the parking lot were coming to take a look. Looking back at the photos later, I was shocked to realize that he had held her legs steady just above her feet with his bare hands.

 The owl had kept a healthy fear of humans though, and flew off right away once he let her go. It was pretty magical to watch this majestic bird take flight over the beach and back into the wild.