When they come to us in winter, Snowy Owls are honest messengers from an Arctic that most of us will never visit. Are we worthy of them? (The inaugural post on Chasing Nature.)
Snowy owls, barn owls, they are all among the most fascinating animals on earth. My daughter showed me a video where these guys had a variety of birds of prey that they had fly over massive microphones to determine the sounds they make. The hawks were the loudest and the fastest the owls were the slowest but they were virtually silent. It was amazing. There was an owl in a tree across the road last night when I took the dogs out. I hoot back to an owl across from our house frequently and it plays along for long periods. There have been new surges in coyotes too. We are very fortunate to have eagles nesting nearby so life is teeming in our neck of the woods.
I could live without the recent invasion of Chinese lantern flies but they are kinda pretty.
Thanks for sharing your owl watching and insightful description. The earth is warming yet I am not convinced there is much we can do to stop it. The earth does cycle through heating and cooling regardless of our presence. Species arise and fade with it. Polar bears were an adaptation of Kodiak bears and the fossil record tells us that our fellow inhabitants either adapt or diminish into extinction. These are natural processes that might leave us despairing of loss so we try to make reasonable adjustments to our activities. We must continue to innovate going forward to help preserve all that we can.
looking forward to your showing us where to see these birds. Thank you. Also, do you bill us when it's time for us to renew? Don't want to miss a thing! Thank you. Jo
Thanks, Jo! So very kind of you. You know, I'm so new to Substack that I'm not 100 percent certain, but I believe that annual subscriptions auto-renew, with an email notice about a week before alerting you to it. But I'll double-check!
It has been so mild this year makes me wonder if the snow geese will stay longer than usual. Perks of climate change?
Snowy owls, barn owls, they are all among the most fascinating animals on earth. My daughter showed me a video where these guys had a variety of birds of prey that they had fly over massive microphones to determine the sounds they make. The hawks were the loudest and the fastest the owls were the slowest but they were virtually silent. It was amazing. There was an owl in a tree across the road last night when I took the dogs out. I hoot back to an owl across from our house frequently and it plays along for long periods. There have been new surges in coyotes too. We are very fortunate to have eagles nesting nearby so life is teeming in our neck of the woods.
I could live without the recent invasion of Chinese lantern flies but they are kinda pretty.
Thanks for sharing your owl watching and insightful description. The earth is warming yet I am not convinced there is much we can do to stop it. The earth does cycle through heating and cooling regardless of our presence. Species arise and fade with it. Polar bears were an adaptation of Kodiak bears and the fossil record tells us that our fellow inhabitants either adapt or diminish into extinction. These are natural processes that might leave us despairing of loss so we try to make reasonable adjustments to our activities. We must continue to innovate going forward to help preserve all that we can.
looking forward to your showing us where to see these birds. Thank you. Also, do you bill us when it's time for us to renew? Don't want to miss a thing! Thank you. Jo
Thanks, Jo! So very kind of you. You know, I'm so new to Substack that I'm not 100 percent certain, but I believe that annual subscriptions auto-renew, with an email notice about a week before alerting you to it. But I'll double-check!