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November 08, 2004 - Part 1: the owl, in profileThe Suffolk Times Part 1: the owl, in profile Top Stories Business Sports Health Obituaries Police Reports News Archive Digital Edition News Tips Classifieds Real Estate Editorials Columns Letters to the Editor Email us Subscribe Now Community News Calendar Dining ArtBeat Movie Listings Bulletin Board East End Links Site Help Page I of .3 he *ffolh iffies* Official Newspaper of Southold Town Part 1: the owl, in profile Monday Novel Focus on Nature By Paul Stoutenburgh We're fortunate to have a great homed owl in our area- If we wake at night we can usually hear his "Hoo. hoo-oo. hoo, hoo." This night hunter gives us much pleasure, but during the daylight hours it attracts hordes of noisy crows. Hardly a day goes by that the crows don't find where its roosting- Once the owl is found, the troops are called in to give it a hard time, calling unmercifully and diving and flying round and round in hopes of driving this archenemy out of their territory. Dennis Puleston did this sketch of a great homed owl in 1961 for an article on owls that appeared in a Riverhead newspaper called The Sunday Review- I first became acquainted with the great homed owl years ago when I was peddling my wares over on the south side. This was the time when duck farms were sprinkled all along the waterways of Moriches Bay. I had gotten to know one particular duck fanner quite well and often stopped by to chat He told me he was having trouble with something taking one of his laying ducks each night These are special ducks that lay the eggs to be incubated for the young ducklings- They would later be marketed as the famous Long Island duck. He had a strong fence around the pen and yet every night one of his prize ducks would be missing- He finally decided it must be something flying in over his fence, so he set a trap on top of a post in the yard where the ducks were kept. Sure enough, the next morning, there in the trap was a great homed owl - The Suffolk Times Now. this duck farmer was a person who didn't like to disrupt nature's scheme of things- He wondered what he should do —"Should I kill it?" Luck was on the owl's Staff Roster side that day_ for I happened to stop in to chat and after much discussion I told him I'd take it far away and release it. We put the not - too -happy owl in a burlap bag and off I Rate Card went- A simple solution that saved the duck - grower's prize layers and one confused owl. That was my first experience of getting a dose -up look at a great homed owl- I The News - Review remember how it clattered its bill when it got excited. It never tried to peck or bite us, but we were very careful to keep away from those deadly claws. That's where the Shelter Island damage would come from- Its claws are powerful and sharp. No wonder the great Reporter horned owl is called the tiger of the woods- The North Shore Sun There must be something special about our area because we have always had great homed owls around- Barbara and I can remember one moonlit night we heard a male calling in a tree just outside the house. We got up to see if we could catch a glimpse The Wine Press of iL Sure enough. after peeking out of one window and then another. we saw him. As we watched, in flew the female, who landed right alongside him_ We'll not forget those two silhouettes side by side in the moonlight, talking softly to each other. We've gotten many calls from readers about great homed owl nests_ There was a lady on Soundview Avenue in Southold, who some years ago had purchased a few Quick Sear Search r— waatF� Enter city c http: //www2.timesreview. corn, ?ST", communiq, /298631061303245.php 11/8/2004 The Suffolk Times I Part 1: the owl, in profile acres of land behind her house just so she would always have woods nearby. (What a great idea.) She called to tell us about a great homed owl's nest in the woods. Of course we had to go up to see iL And there it was — a great homed owl nestled down in a makeshift nest of twigs and leaves. Owls don't build their nests in the usual manner, but use some other bird's nests — such as a crow's or a hawk's — or they might even use a broken -off tree like the one Ralph Tuthill had in Mattitudc. There, a tree had broken off some 20 feet up, and a great homed owl decided to use it as its nesting site. We always searched the pine trees on Moore's Lane in Greenport for an owl of one sort or another. It became routine not only to look for owls there but to stop and look for pellets from the roosting owls. Owl pellets are not as you might think, the waste from a bird, but undigested feathers and bones that are upchucked and fall to the ground. By examining the pellets closely, you can tell what kind of rodents are in the area, plus they're a fun thing to collect and figure out what kind of owl the pellets came from. One day while on Moores Lane 1 happened to look up at a dump of twigs and leaves with my binoculars and there, almost at the top of one of the pine trees, looking down at me with its big ear tufts and yellow eyes, was a great homed owl sitting on her nest I had time to photograph it. as it never left the nest, no matter how much I moved around below. Another interesting experience 1 had with a nesting great homed owl was when 1 was a councilman on the Town Board. During one of the meetings, Barbara received a frantic call at home that a great homed owls nest had fallen out of a tree in Fast Marion and the young were on the ground, not yet able to fly. Knowing I would be interested in doing something about it Barbara called Town Hall and told me the situation. I quietly excused myself and called my son Peter to meet me at the site in Fast Marion. Upon our arrival we saw three light-tan, healthy young owlets crouched down, looking a bit bewildered. The parents were some distance away, watching. What to do with them? We decided we'd make a temporary nest and try to get them back into it We rigged up a bushel basket filled with some of the nesting material and hoisted it up into the tree from which the original nest had fallen. Then, ever so carefully, we corralled the young and carried them back up to their new nest, where they soon settled down. Befieve it or not it worked, and for all we know the young were able to finish their growing, high in the tree in their bushel- basket nest Page 2 of 3 The only owl that can rival the great homed owl in size is the great gray owl, an owl of the far north country. We thought we would never see this magnificent owl down here, but then one day one showed up at the west end of Long Island. People from all over went to see it and Barbara and I were no exceptions. We got to the general location and soon found a group of people, all with binoculars pointed up, so it wasn't hard to find the owl. All you had to do was follow the pointed binoculars and it led you right to it Its gray and white markings blended in well with the big oak it was resting on. We were sitting on the ground, leisurely viewing this handsome owl, when all of a sudden it decided to take off. It headed right for us and flew just six feet over our heads. Well never forget that great gray owl gliding noiselessly over our heads, its eyes making contact with ours. It's those mini - adventures that make life so rewarding. There are more owl stories 1 want to tell you, but they may have to wait until next week. In the meantime 1 want to share something with you that happened just this week in our home. Going through some old newspapers, we came across our very first Focus on Nature articles that were written for The Sunday Review in Riverhead. Believe it or not the second article, written on March 13, 1961, was about the great homed owl. Here is the last paragraph of that article: 'Perhaps later on we can talk more about owls, as they are an interesting group. We :.r http:/A vivw2. timesreview. com/ ST /community/298631061303245.php 11/8/2004 The Suffolk Times' Part 1: the owl, in profile Page 3 of 3 have marry owls on Long Island, the great Snowy Owl that invades us from the North, the Monkey -faced or Sam Owl that we always associate with Church steeples, the Short-eared Owl that roams the dunes and open cmn*y and of course the little Screech Owl we hear from in the summer. These and others all have their own interesting stories to tell' © 2004 Times - Review Newspapers http:/ twww2. timesreview. com/ ST /community/298631061303245 -php 1118/2004