Word: Owls elusive, but it was a hoot
April 5th, 2008, 11:18 am · Post a Comment · posted by Ann Walker
I went on an owl-spotting excursion the other night with local birding expert Henry Detwiler .
The occasion was a sort of media preview for the Yuma Birding & Nature Festival — we were attempting to round up “photo opportunities” for an Arizona Star photographer and “natural sound” for Angelina Bonta of local public radio station KAWC.
As it turned out, it was Angelina — a birding newbie like me — who spotted our find of the evening: cute little burrowing owls conveniently hanging out around the Burrowing Owl Habitat at West Wetlands Park. They really couldn’t have made it easier unless they wore signs around their necks and passed out 8×10 glossy head shots like auditioning actors (photo here by Henry, compliments of his Southwest Birders Web site).
Since I am famous within my family for wondering “why can’t they put nature closer to the parking lot?” I’m all for watchable wildlife that appears on cue in its designated area.
Still. our ride around the area — to West Pond near the California side of Imperial Dam and then to Mittry Lake and Betty’s Kitchen on the Arizona side of the Colorado — was a pretty cool way to spend a beautiful spring evening.
And while we didn’t see any wild burros on this trip (I’ve regularly spotted them on the way to Imperial Dam), we did trade stares with a coyote who stopped to check us out before disappearing into the brush.
At West Pond, we weren’t actually trying to see birds so much as to hear them — and incidentally to provide the ferocious local mosquitoes with a tasty dinner. But Henry’s recordings of assorted rails did elicit some return conversation from black rails and Virginia rails. And since black rails — sparrow-sized critters that live only on the damp margins of marshes — are among the more area’s most elusive birds, we scored a coveted “positive identification” for our nascent “life lists” (as someone who can get competitive about almost anything, I can see how this could be habit-forming).
By the time we got around to the shore of Mittry, it was fully dark and a whole array of stars you don’t see in town were on spectacular display across the sky. We saw a huge flock of roosting egrets in some trees, but not close enough for pictures. And despite Henry’s recordings — and live imitations of I’m not sure what — we didn’t manage to call in any barn owls or screech owls.
I guess if I want to pursue this in the future, I will have to work on a convincing dying rabbit scream, as Henry says that’s a winner with owls (if somewhat distressing to any human companions).
In the meantime, though, it was still a hoot — and a swell way to enjoy one of our dwindling number of cool, fresh evenings before summer takes hold. If you want to try it yourself, Henry will be leading an “Owl Adventure Tour” during the Birding Festival (details here; also check out the “Survey Rails by Boat” trip).
Or make it easy and just take a picnic down to the West Wetlands Park — the burrowing owls are on the job!
