Subject: What are the chances?
Date: Jul 10 17:03:00 1995
From: "Gates, Bryan" - BGATES at assessment.env.gov.bc.ca


Ah, the coincidences of life that make things interesting.

On June 24, while on a nature cruise, I led a group from a rocky beach up a
wet and muddy bear trail into Spurt lake in SE Alaska. In a bog meadow near
the lake we happened upon a recently dead raptor. After showing this keen
but soggy group why it was a Great-horned Owl and not a hawk or eagle, and
after speculating on the cause of death (partly eaten, but no conclusion), I
plucked a long primary feather - Primary VII, I believe - from the right
wing. (Yes, I know - illegal and all that, but I just had to show people
back on the ship the soft structure of an owl's feathers, a factor that
renders most of these birds so silent in flight).

At home the next day, I showed my wife and family, and left the feather
on the kitchen counter. Two days later, my wife came in the back door
carrying "the feather" and asking how it came to be lying under the
rhododendron bush below the kitchen window. Open window and a breeze, I
guess. Or the cat dragged it out? I admired it again and placed it back on
the counter.

Two hour later, after shuffling mail and telephone messages, I looked and
realized that there were two feathers on that counter. Two identical
feathers! Same colour patterns. Exactly the same length. One marginally
broader than the other, but both "right Primary VII" and both from Great-
horned Owls.

Now, I have seen and heard Great-horned Owls in my yard on occasion -
perhaps 5 times in 20 years - but what are the chances? What are the odds
that one should stand on my roof, molt a wing feather (I can only conclude
that it was a molted feather...no other feathers about) and that that feather
should settle to the ground about 15 feet from where the identical feather
from the Alaskan bird lay on the counter?

Help me...

Someone suggested that, if I wait long enough, I'll have all the parts and
can make my own owl. I'm waiting.

Bryan Gates, Victoria
bgates at assessment.env.gov.bc.ca