Nature is filled with fun, fascination, and God’s expansive glory. Did you hear? News broke this week…not about instability or bad guys on the prowl, but a local critter in trouble…a “barred owl.” He got himself wrapped up in a fishing line. Without assistance…well, let me tell you about barred owls.
Roughly once a week, I sit outside and have a conversation – with a barred owl. He is my neighbor. Generally, this is one of my best talks of the week. We exchange views, always unhurried, no sharp words. We both marvel (I am sure) at the closeness of a dependable, easy-going friend.
Our dialogue varies. No politics. He usually starts with “who-hoot-who-who,” which he repeats, the classic barred owl call. This is paired with a single hoot or two and a parakeet murmur, only deeper.
I give back what I can muster, which probably strikes him as a sick relative. We do not talk long. He says his piece, I say mine, then done. Funny part is, he lives not far from the one who got in trouble.
Reading the paper today, the barred owl – tangled up in loveless fish line – was found one town over. This set me to thinking. Maybe I should know more about my neighbor…
Turns out, barred owls – also known as northern barred owls, striped owls, or eight-hoot owls – are exceedingly common. They started in New England and have spread everywhere. They love deep woods, mixed forests, swamps, and – not surprisingly, given his troubles – eat fish, and smaller fare.
Interestingly, although I seldom see my flying, nocturnal neighbor, barred owls can stand two feet tall, boast a four-foot wingspan. From dawn to sundown, they sleep half of every hour, then hunt vigorously all night.
Owls come to us, of course, also in books, wisdom imputed to them – probably something about their patience, deep eyes, difficulty being seen, and nimbleness at night. Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom, is tied to owls, as is the “Brown Owl” in Squirrel Nutkin, part of the Peter Rabbit series.
Then we have Winnie-the-Pooh’s not-so-swift friend “WOL” (not a great speller), “Hedwig” in Harry Potter, and “Howland,” an “expert at everything owl” from Pogo (the cartoon). There are probably more, as owls are mysterious, quizzical, eternally and nocturnally interesting birds, odd as birds come.
Most interesting for me, however, was the fact that barred owls – found almost everywhere now – have a range of six miles and live 18 years in the wild, up to 30 in captivity. They are non-migratory homebodies, hunting a limited swath, inclined to “live long and prosper.”
All that brought me back to “my” barred owl, my neighbor the conversationalist. You see, the town in which that other barred owl was caught in a fishing line is less than six miles away.
The good news is that the local police found him, disentangled the fishing line, fixed him up, and plan to release him back into the wild. Thank God for barred owls and good-hearted police officers.
For me, rather selfishly, I look forward to hearing whether my friend was the owl in question. He will probably show up later this week. We can talk it over.
I will ask him if he is the one “who-hoot-who-who” got into that mess. He will ask me, “Who-hoot-who-who” is asking. We will chuckle and murmur; he will go hunt, I will go to sleep. Nature is alive with fun, fascination, and God’s glory, isn’t it?
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!
This is a great story – and that is a great Owl photograph to accompany it. ” Nature is alive with fun,fascination and God’s glory…” — it sure enough is for a fact ! And the kindness of the police officers by taking the time to disentangle the Owl from the fishing line — is admirable . Kindness toward animals is a great quality. Growing up in Philadelphia we had two trees in front of our house , a pine tree and a maple tree. Pine tree was home to Squirrel family — Maple tree had a Sparrow nest that I saw close up first time I climbed that tree in 1959 at age nine. Seeing what a great bit of engineering that nest was was something of a great experience then. Amazing how well built, how sturdy that nest was,all those small twigs intertwined, connected as they were . It was the incentive for climbing that 30 foot high tree and it was an adventure that probably had some influence on an interest in engineering that developed about ten years later
I do believe you are fortunate Robert to have those ” Who – Hoot -who- who ” conversations with the owl !
RBC. our wildlife is bigger. A doe and her 2 fawns. They enjoy my wife’s free buffet of tulips and Hosta plants around the yard and by the house. It is the wife versus the deer, and the deer are ahead. My wife finally started spraying the plants with a Dawn mixture to gain the upper hand. I have tried deer repellant for years that worked until this year when the deer began eating the repellant as dessert. Back to the drawing board.
Have a good campaigning day.
Love this article. I hear owls outside our window at night but haven’t got to be close up to see “in person.” Love God’s nature and now I’m prompted to go out in the night when I hear the owl!
I love this story, I live in northern Wisconsin I am very hard of hearing and so i don’t get to hear the Owls, many visitors say they here them on my 10 acres of woods and wetlands.
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Yes!!! Nature is wonderful. Thank you for the lighthearted, wonderful and educational article????
Love me some owls. ANY ‘flavor’. Thanks for the article!
You have to wonder how a fishing line was caught up in a tree. Looks like the bird snatched a meal on the ground and took the line up to his resting place. We are in a world of hurt when it comes to plastic or discarded trash. God’s plan for us is always good and the owl is an integral part of the balance of nature we live in.
I have found these beautiful birds all over the world when I visit coffee farms for my business. We have owls on the Big Island of Hawaii (and other islands) that help reduce the rodent population. “Thank you Lord for Your gracious gifts like owls.”
I love Owls and Bats but they don’t love each other. True of a lot of my friends, I could never have them in the same room at the same time!
I love this article. When we lived in Montana we hosted a pair of screech owls that came around every evening— one in the front of the acre and one in the back. They’d talk to us and to each other for a while then fly off in the dark to hunt. Great memory. Thanks.
I find this story most interesting. I love the way it’s worded . Conversation with barred owl! Thanks for sharing.
Re: the Barred owl …. this is surely a heart-warming story but there are other opinions, especially in Oregon and Washington that paint a much darker picture. Roughly 20 years ago, western Oregon environmentalists became very vocal because the population of Northern Spotted Owls was sharply declining. Poorly researched evidence suggested that local logging techniques (clear cutting +) were ruining the NSO’s habitat and they weren’t reproducing. The politicians and Feds got on board and closed large areas from logging resulting in the loss of hundreds of jobs and closure of many saw mills. Our university continued to invest large sums studying the owl and after a decade or so, the academics had to admit that an invasion of the Barred Owl was the culprit as they were actually killing the Spotted Owls to provide better habitat or living and breeding. The result was tens of millions of dollars lost via forest and sawmill closures. the effect is still being felt. Recently, Oregon’s game folks proposed a “bounty” on the Barred owls but I have no evidence of what NSO population impacts that has had.
Just thought the Barred owl fans should know that the bird has a “darker side” … especially in Oregon
An Owl and I carried on a 15 minute conversation one evening. Then he flew right by me and landed in the tree behind me. I don’t know what we talked about but it was awesome. I will never forget it. I love owls
Great representation of life out here in the country.
We are blessed to often have 15 varieties of birds – not to mention deer daily, raccoons, ground hogs, squirrels (by the hundreds), an occasional red fox, coyotes, and lately bobcats in our little woodland abode. It is so gratifying to hear them chattering away.