Ode To The Owl, An Elegant Fowl

Just returned from a full week at Owl Farm, where I had a delightful time hiking, rafting and even cutting a bit of Lodgepole pine for transport back to Eugene.

Hiked the trails on Entiat Ridge with friend Frank Czubiak. The Mad River area is a wondrous combination of high forested ridges peppered with lush meadows filled with mountain wildflowers (more on our trip up Cougar Mountain to come).

Many have asked: why Owl Farm? Well, as noted previously in this blog, our property in Shugart Flats was dubbed "Owl Farm" by friend and former fellow wilderness ranger Kelly Tjaden because of a discarded inflatable owl found on the property.

There's also the obvious reference to Hunter S. Thompson's beloved hacienda in Woody Creek, Colorado.

But another reason for the moniker is the fact that the Northern Spotted Owl, an endangered species, is the principal reason for the demise of the timber industry in the Northwest. Toward the end of my Forest Service career in the early 80s, many of us spent time searching for these nocturnal critters to identify and document their habitat. Our working hours were just after sunset to sunrise. In Forest Service parlance, we were known as (don't laugh) "hooters."

With large heads and eyes that face forwards, owls are adept predators that hunt at night. Their eye placement gives them binocular vision and very precise depth perception. Owls cannot move their eyes within their sockets like we can. In order to look around, they have to move their entire head, which has a range of movement of about 270 degrees. Owls are at the top of the food chain; they have no major predators.

With apologies to Edward Lear, who penned "The Owl and the Pussycat," the owl is truly an elegant fowl.