Subject: owl in the Arboretum, but which one?
Date: Dec 17 18:20:52 1998
From: "Wallis Bolz" - wallitra at nwrain.com


My husband put his hands in my hair and said,

"Let's go look for an owl."

It was about 4, which is dusk this time of year on this side of the hill.
We walked over to Washington Park Arboretum. I showed him the pellets in
the Sorbus grove. He turned away, a grimace, nay, a gag pulling his mouth a
little askew. He is not a man of strong stomach.

We walked, we examined the trees, we did not see the owl.

We argued in the Winter Garden. My voice rose. I had a point to make.

A loud cry cut me short. We looked at one another. My husband was wearing
my coat. He put his hand in the pocket, pulled from it my binoculars, ran
over to the stand of western red cedars. A large bird moved from one tree
to the other. We gazed up. It was dark. We saw nothing. I spoke with a
jogger. The bird flew out of the cedar, swooped down, and flew through the
Japanese maples in the general direction of Broadmoor. It was the owl.

So my husband estimates a wing span of about 24 inches. The jogger said it
had a large head. I thought it was big. The cry was a series of
barks/shrieks, VERY loud, and ended in what I call the exhausted,
strangled, dog on a chain sound. Can it be a barred owl? Its pellet was
made up of gray fur (mole, vole) and cartilage. This bird is definitely a
fan of the big, limbed up conifers.

Wallis