Owl Watched
Watching the owl proved to be a thrill to a lot of humans Saturday afternoon. In the two hours that I set up my zoom camera focused on the owl, pretty close to a hundred park visitors stopped to see the rare bird. People had to form queues at the camera, and one wit joked “See the owl, five bucks!” I should have recorded the viewer exclamations of surprise, joy, amazement, happiness, and other excitement. For the owl, not so much. It occasionally looked in the direction of the adoring multitudes but mostly ignored us. There was a moment when I was the only watcher when something excited the owl’s curiosity, and it leaped out of the burrow’s mouth and stood up. I caught a few seconds of that moment on video, above. But shortly it hopped into the burrow again and resumed watching with just the crown of its head visible, and its eyes gradually dimming. You could see it fighting to stay awake, and then gradually both eyes closed and it took a little owl nap. Watching humans is not the same thrill for the bird as watching the bird is for us humans. A number of people told me this was the first Burrowing Owl they had ever seen in the park, some of them after years of looking. I’m fairly sure the owl isn’t thinking, these are the first humans I ever saw …
This day humans were on exceptionally good behavior. Everyone wore masks and kept their distance. I must have seen more than a dozen dogs pass by and all of them were on leash. That’s memorable. I imagine the owl was grateful. It could nap.
More about Burrowing Owls: Wikipedia Cornell Audubon In Chavez Park
