Writing from the studio as I watch the snow sift down, lifting the big rig every few minutes or seconds to fire away at jays, robins, sparrows and towhees in the snow, I'm keenly aware of my self-assumed role, shrugged on once again, of Press Agent to a Beloved Animal. I know everyone wants an update, and now! I've got some humans here, me being one of them, who need attention in that odd,
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Snowy Owl Vet Check
I can't describe how it felt to come trotting up to the scene of Vince holding the owl. I'd imagine that touching that owl was like being able to hold a mermaid. The mythical, made real.
As soon as Jesse was ready, though, the examination commenced, a Greek chorus of Vienna WV neighbors watching.
The owl's head swiveled smoothly as he glared at each intruder.
Jesse, momentarily
GOT EEEM!!! Trapping a Snowy Owl
The night before the trapping attempt, I laid out two amulets. One was my snowy owl, the other my Eskimo face. Both are soapstone, one of my favorite substances. I believe both to be powerful. Both were gifts. I'm not sure about the owl pendant's provenance, as I think it was purchased in an Iowa antique shop, but the face was carved by an Inuit woman in 1976, somewhere along Hudson Bay, way up
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To Save a Snowy Owl
I knew that going to see the snowy owl at Grand Central Mall in Vienna, WV, just across the river from us, would change things. When I see wildlife in peril, I have to stop to help. Back in the mid-1980's, I remember walking Long Beach in Stratford, Connecticut, when I was working as a field biologist for The Nature Conservancy's Connecticut Chapter. I came up to a large colony of least
Parkersburg's Snowy Owl
It showed up November 27, 2017, the day I left for Ecuador, perched atop the Lowe's in Marietta, Ohio. I found out as I was driving to Columbus, to leave from the airport the next morning. A snowy owl, in my own home town. Good grief. Oh well. Birding is ever thus, and I would be seeing all kinds of groovy birds in the next ten days. I'd have to miss this one.
Photo taken Dec. 4 2017 by
I'm Back! Where's Jemima?
It's been a week, but I feel like I've just now returned from 12 days away, ten of them spent in the Ecuadorian Andes and foothills. I left on Opening Day of our weeklong gun season for whitetails, so I missed the whole bang-bangy thing. It was very wet and not warm in the Andes, so these frigid Ohio temperatures weren't much of a shock. I had an 18-hour journey home, getting up at 4 AM in
A Ten-Point Messenger
I'm back from 12 days away, 10 of them in Ecuador's Andes. It was the most excellent adventure!!
And all is well at home; both Liam and Jemima survived without me; both boys pitched in to make sure she got fed every day; and I've done nothing since I got back but study and photograph blue jays. It feels great to be back in the saddle again. My suitcase exploded in the living room, and there
Remembering Hannah--Dean's Fork Walk 2
I
looked back down where I'd been and reveled at the stripe of sunlight
still illuminating Hannah's old pasture. That big cut log to the left is
where I saw her last, on my birthday in July, 2016. That image is
burned into my mind. That was a day the animals came to me, too. Three
skunks and Hannah. They know.
There
was nothing like this moment, and it was one of those