My wife and I are walking in the woods with a young couple we’d invited over. The couple’s in love, about to get engaged.
I know my way around, and could navigate these woods in the dark. But it’s bright daylight. That’s why it’s unusual that we see an owl.
Romeo and his girl spot it, and point it out. I’ve seen owls at night, but this was a first. It looked down on us, awake, but without much interest.
Owls are above it all. They’ve even got an edge over eagles. This is because they can play eagle, either day or night.
They’ve got broad wings for soaring. And they can pick up animals of all sizes with steel-trap talons. (You wouldn’t want to shake hands with a two-fisted owl; you’d come away bloody, or minus a finger).
Owls have a reputation for being wise. But they also have a reputation for bad luck if spotted during the day. Well, it wasn’t me or my wife who found it; we were just along for the ride. Would that matter?
This Great Horned Owl had miles on it. Shaggy, dirty gray. Huge, with eyes that didn’t mind daylight, and stared you down. Its “horns” stuck up hard and pointed. The chest was broad.
Interesting as hell, but not a good-looking bird.
We’d also seen a Red-headed Woodpecker, White and Red-breasted Nuthatches, several Hermit Thrushes, and a shy Woodcock that walked like a chicken.
There was beaver sign. Deer were in the distance. Coyotes had our scent, and knew our plans.
As we wandered back to the parking area I thought about the bad luck thing. Would our car be there? Would we have a flat? Would we have unseen tick bites that would bring disease later? Was there such a thing as owl-induced bad luck?
Bull.
It was a great hike. We saw some birds and got to spend a couple of hours outdoors with the loving couple. When they broke up a few days later, I saw no connection to the owl sighting. At least, nothing I’d admit.
Just what in the heck is the derivation of ‘Wise old Owl’. Maybe it‘s because they appear to be stoic and seem to have a look of utter disdain on their face(?) if you happen upon one sitting on a tree branch peering down at you. (no pun)
Bad Luck….
Another old wives tale; any one who finds, stumbles across, meets nose to nose in a pasture is what I would call very lucky and probably a good birder to be able to pick locations where the Old Wise Owl is lurking. I’m not a new birder but I can only name 6 owls that I have found including one beautiful Great Horned Owl last week while viewing Tundra swans in an old cranberry bog near Toms River N.J. Perched in a dead pine in splendid color with a great set of horns, he/she was magnificent!
It was a very lucky encounter that night!
Jaci, it seems to us that anybody who’s seen all those owls, especially the Snowy Owl and strange Burrowing Owls, can only be described by one word: lucky.
If seeing owls in the daytime is bad luck, then I’ve got a truck load of it. Bad luck, I mean. I’ve stumbled onto some very interesting owls in the broad daylight: nose to nose with a Barred Owl in a pasture; a Northern Pygmy Owl in the woods above the Clackamas River; a large and silent white Snowy Owl that rose out of the strange fissure in the earth known as “Crack in the Ground” (really, that is what it is called) in Christmas Valley, OR. And a number of less-memorable owls along the highway as I’ve traveled through life. That Snowy owl was memorable – and large. (And we haven’t broken up, even after that sighting in broad daylight…)
(Not to mention the very strange Burrowing Owls we’ve often stumbled over in the high desert of the Great Basin… Odd creatures, those.)