Saw What? No, Saw Whet.

Owls don’t just hoot. They are a hoot. Some look like little space creatures that waddled off a flying saucer. And when you see one, it might not be where you expect.

I was in an office in the big city. The neighborhood is mostly concrete, glass and traffic. There’s a lone tree in front of the building. Every year it grows a few anemic leaves. City beautification. But an oasis for birds that get caught downtown.

From the 4th-floor window we can look into its branches.

I’ve seen Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, Downy Woodpeckers and Flickers; Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Brown-headed Cowbirds. Tanagers and Indigo Buntings. Not all at once. But the whole Midwest bird book has paid visits to that city tree.

One morning there was an owl. Our sharp-eyed V.P. pointed it out. She doesn’t miss things. She knew I’d be interested. ‘We have an owl,” she said.

I looked and came away empty. I was expecting something owl-like. Once, miles from the city, I shined a flashlight on a Great Horned owl. It was hawk-big, with ear-like tufts and huge eyes. So I had expectations. But there was nothing like that in our tree.

Then I saw it. Huddled against the trunk, sat a little…thing. Could it be an owl? It looked like a baby Ewok. Half the size of a loaf of bread. No ear tufts. And its eyes, normally an owl field mark, were closed. Well, it worked nights; this was time to sleep.

“Saw Whet,” I said.

“Saw what?” the V.P. said.

“Saw Whet.” I said.

“Say what?”

“A Saw Whet owl.”

This is the only breed of small owl in our part of the country. Screech Owls, Barred Owls, Barn Owls, Short-eared,  Long-eared and Great Horned Owls are way bigger.

It sat nine-to-five, eyes shut. Before we left that night, we looked again. Its eyes opened. It looked back. The following day it was gone. Every time we walked past that window, for the next few weeks, we glanced at the spot where it had been.

It never showed. Although we had to look hard, because it was good at blending. It’s wise to blend in if you’re going to spend the day outdoors with your eyes closed. But being wise came as no surprise. It may not have looked like an owl, but it was.

4 Responses to “Saw What? No, Saw Whet.”

  1. Brian says:

    I had a pair of Eastern Screech-Owls calling in some thin woods in central Montana last summer. It was more or less dark, so I got a flashlight and went looking. I managed to copy their whinny call and they came close. I got pictures of one bird that was close enough to pick up with my hands- utterly unconcerned. We had a bunch of Saw-whets in that same spot a few years earlier. One little owl is pretty cute, but a whole group just compounds it (yes, I think ‘cute’ can be a two-fisted term, when it is applied to a diminutive member of a group that could, though it would never dream of it, tear your face off).

  2. Gizhawk says:

    I’ve never seen a Saw Whet either! But I do know about owls “hiding in plain sight”… once you spot one, sometimes if you look away you have to search all over again even though the owl hasn’t moved!

    Here we tend to have Barn Owls, Barred Owls and Great Horned Owls.

  3. norm says:

    I have never seen a Saw Whet owl…..but I’ll bet Abbott and Costello could have made a bit out of your conversation. For those of you utterly confused by this remark look up “Who’s on First.”

  4. Rachel says:

    From my perspective living in the SE US, you are so lucky to happen upon one of these guys anywhere let alone out an offiice window! Here- you need a few nets and then you need to be in the right place at the right time. RC