Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

With the weekend upon me once more and a lack of an update this past weekend (Alison was visiting me so I have a good excuse), I figured I would update with a fun report from the field. On Friday night at about 8:15pm, I decided to go owling (not to be confused with the practices of "planking" or smuggling sheep in the early 12th and 13th centuries). While my goal was to find a Northern Saw-whet Owl ( Aegolius acadicus ), I did end up getting an unexpected lifer Barn Owl ( Tyto alba ) near the Pennypack Farm fence instead. Upon leaving the house and heading up the gravel road that leads to the girls cabins and eventually the back field, I felt the usual feelings of dread, fear, and anticipation at what I might find on my night hike around the Outdoor School property. My adrenalin was pumping as I had elected to walk most of the journey without a headlamp. The looming half moon overhead gave out enough light for my limited human night vision to use to gauge my surroundings. Al...

Great Horned Owl by Carl James Freeman There's nothing quite as pleasant as listening to the hoots of a Great Horned Owl ( Bubo virginianus ) outside the house. You don't know quite where it is or whether it is serenading another of its kind. As I sit here on this election night, biting my nails at the potential results (I won't name names but lets just say that I don't want Mr. Mitt Burns and Paul Smithers to win), it's nice to know that even on such a contentious time, one can look out the window towards to darkness and hear a kindred species hooting away in the pines. I can only hope that the hooting and hollering I'll be doing won't be detrimental towards my sanity and won't prevent me from enjoying those wonderful hoots of that owl in the nights to come. P.S. I'm too wired from the election night to be writing prose at the moment, towards the end of the week however, I will provide a review of one of the books on my reading list called ...