hidden

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We are always surprised when a post from the past sudden gets a lot of visits. We don't know why or from where, it's just that the visits shoot up. So we decided to repeat it. This one is from 2009 and it's just as true today. 



Camouflage works both ways.

Not only does it allow a mousy gray-brown prey animal hide on the forest floor, but it helps a motionless tree-toned predator blend into the barren canopy.

If you have ever wondered why a barred owl is colored and patterned the way it is, one picture is worth a thousand words. What first appeared to be an oddly shaped tree at Ijams Nature Center, proved to be more. Bright yellow works for a goldfinch, but an owl of the same color simply would not blend in.

The opposite is true for that poor goldfinch. He is right yellow to attract the attention of a female, but that means a Cooper's hawk can see him as well. 

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frog for breakfast?

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One advantage of working at a nature center is, well, the nature that greets you in the morning. Some times it's even a barred owl perched on a bridge railing watching the pond below. 

It may have been waxing poetic: enjoying the early morning mist as were all we, or, I suspect, it wanted to catch a last minute snack before its night of hunting ended. (I always like a glass of milk before I trundle off to bed. Amphibian flesh would be a bit exotic for my own personal taste, especially raw and still kicking. I suppose I might be open for frog fricassee, but the sauce would have to be right, nothing too heavy before bedtime.)

Barred owls are mostly nocturnal and crepuscular (active at twilight). Come to think of it, I'm a bit crepuscular myself.

They prefer woods near water and feed on a wide variety of prey, including mice, moles, voles, shrews, rats, squirrels, young rabbits, insects and aquatic creatures like small fish, turtles, frogs, snakes, lizards and crayfish.

The small pond the owl was watching is a great place to find frogs. And even though several of the nature center’s staff got photos of the early morning owl, it didn’t seem to mind posing. It's a lucky thing that we are not frogs.

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mockingbird who?

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OK. This is obviously not a mockingbird. Even if you don't know diddley about birds you know this is an owl, and a rather placid one at that.

What you really cannot see is the Northern mockingbird in the tree to the right. It was pitching a hissy fit at the barred owl, who was ignoring both it and the photographer standing below them both.

I—being that photographer—turned to take the mockingbird's photo but it wouldn't hold still. It was just too damn mad to deal with the paparazzi. In your face camera man!

Barred owls (Strix varia) have become more common over the past few decades expanding their range to the west, even displacing the endangered Northern spotted owls (Strix occidentalis caurina) from their traditional range. This one at Ijams Nature Center perhaps demonstrates why: even if harassed they keep their characteristic air of nonchalance.

Who me? They seem to ask.

I mean: look at that face. They just don't get upset.

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who cooks?

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Sunday with Karen Sue:

We recently went searching for barred owls at the nature center. Our outing rekindled Karen Sue's interest in their calls. The Donald Kroodsma book she mentions is remarkable; we sell it in the Ijams gift shop.




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sing along

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"Barred owl sitting in a redbud tree" (Best if sung to the tune of "Blackbird" by Lennon and McCartney, although I think Paul actually wrote it, not edgy enough for the walrus. Goo goo g'joob. )

Redbud is in bloom at the nature center. How do I know? The barred owl told me.

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over exposed

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Until the leaves return to the trees, the barred owls at Ijams are a little easier to see.

Although this one tried to blend into the invasive ivy along the Universal Trail, it was still remarkably easy to locate.


- Photo taken at Ijams Nature Center

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looking back 13

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Ten favorite photos from 2009 in chronological order, number 13:

From late August, the captive barred owl at the nature center looked at me with big soulful eyes.

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evening chat

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We have been hearing a young barred owl in the woods behind the house lately but it's tentative, nothing regular. I say young because it seems to be softly practicing its "who-cooks-for-you, who-cooks-for-you-all" call.

The one reliable place that I know to routinely see or hear one of the sweet-faced owls is, most conveniently, near the Visitor Center at Ijams. We often hear it conversing with the injured barred owl we adopted several years ago.

And with the gentle face like the one in the above photo, what owl wouldn't want an early evening "how-ya-doing" kind of chat?

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owlet's visit

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The juvenile barred owl in the photo–still looking lean and covered with natal down–seemed as captivated by Tom Mallory as Tom was of the young owlet, each being new to the other.

For a complete account of what Tom saw go to the farragutpress website: Barred owls make appearance.



- Photo taken by Tom Mallory.



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who cooks for you?

It was late in the day as I walked one of the trails at the Ijams’ Homesite. A slow moving slough of the Tennessee River was all that separated me from long and narrow Dickinson Island, named after the family of Miss Emily herself, the famed poet, the Belle of Amherst. The west end of the island is developed, the home to Island Home Airport, a small landing strip for Cessna Skyhawks and Beechcraft Bonanzas. The east end is wooded and as I soon discovered, the home to another winged-wonder--a barred owl. As the sun was setting in the west and darkness engulfed the oaks and hickories around me, the owl began to call. I repeated the familiar mnemonic in my head, “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you alllllllll?” Similar to a red-shouldered hawk, a barred owl’s preferred habitat is woods near water and in the Tennessee Valley, there’s plenty of that. Courtship for these nocturnal hunters begins at this time of the year. The one I heard was seeking a mate. And if he succeeds, and as we all know, “Hope springs eternal,” egg-laying occurs in early March.

Photo by my dear friend, the late and great Jim Logan. We still miss you buddy!