One Hot Owl!

Now that it's warm out again, Alice reveals just how spoiled she is. She pants anytime it gets above 74 degrees Farenheit. How do I know this so precisely? Because I keep the air conditioning at the nature center set at 75, and Alice starts panting just about the time the air conditioning kicks in. How lame is that??

Owls don't sweat. They pant when they get hot. And the big gular sac that puffs out when a Great Horned Owls hoots (just like a frog) pulses in and out when they pant. This is formally known as "gular fluttering." It comes off kind of funny since the back of their tongues are attached basically to the top of the gular sac, so when they pant, their tongue flops up and down. Kids love it.

But when REALLY hot, Alice does more than just pant. She assumes an odd body posture with her plumage compressed and wings drooped (even her good one), exposing her "wing pits" and her legs. It looks weird since normally you don't see Great Horned Owl legs or the insides of their wings when they are just standing there.

The upstairs of our house (where Alice hangs out) is always warmer than downstairs. And Alice is exceedingly out of shape. So when she eats and it's warmer than usual upstairs, she has to take breaks to cool off. That's what she's doing in the photo--hence the bit of gopher on her bill and odd expression on her face (she just took a little bitty princess bite and hasn't swallowed yet, and she closes her eyes when she takes a bite.)

Our hot owl is also into full molt. She lost THREE tail feathers in ONE DAY! Right now she is missing her four middle tail feathers, so she now has a forked tail. Kinda funny. Last year she was missing nearly all of her tail feathers at once, so we called her "stubby." She might be heading in that direction again this year.

Alice Goes to the Movies

Alice the Great Horned Owl, along with my husband Ken and I will be making an appearance at the movie theater in Winona, Minnesota this Saturday evening. What's the occasion? The movie "Hoot" is being released this weekend! In case you haven't heard about it, it's about some kids working to stop a development in Florida that would wipe out a colony of Burrowing Owls. It's based on the book by the same name. You can get full details and find educational material at the movie's website: www.hootmovie.com.

The main point of our visit is to raise awareness about owls in need of help, and to let people know what they can do to help owls. We will be getting materials from the folks at the Center for Biological Diversity. Check out the owl part of their website at http://www.hoot4owls.org/hoot/.

Anyone can volunteer to hand out information at the "Hoot" opener at their local theater. Contact the Center for Biological Diversity to have them send you materials ASAP if you'd like to participate.

Otherwise, Ken and I spent some time observing a wild owl nest in Rochester, MN last night. The family of three fledglings are just starting to leave the nest--there was one out and about and two still in the nest. Mom and the kid out of the nest were squawking back and forth, so that was interesting to hear.

Weird as it seems, I'm not a night owl, so I was thankful Ken drove home so I could sleep! (I normally start nodding off around 9:00 PM.)

Alice isn't getting much sleep during the day lately--too many school programs! So for everyone out there who thinks it's funny when I say Alice "works," realize that it is work to stay up when you should be sleeping! :-)

Have a Hoot this weekend.

Molting, Etc.

Not much of interest has been going on in Aliceland lately. The nice news (for me) is that her hormones are finally starting to ebb. She no longer hoots at work, and I can get by with hooting with her just a few minutes each morning right when I get up. I do have to say that three months of incessant hooting was getting a bit annoying...even for me!

The neighbor owls have been hooting in the yard on occasion. I assume they have babies of some size now so that they can be left unattended for longer and longer periods of time. But search as I might, I just plain can't find their nests. I did, however, find another nest 15 miles from here and secured permission from the landowners to observe the nest, but the female is so skittish I can't get anywhere near without her taking off. So I haven't pestered that family much.

I also heard a new (to me) owl a week or so ago--thanks to Alice. She seemed to be watching/listening to something outside, so I put my ear to the open window crack (I can't open Alice's window more than a few inches or we wind up with talon holes in the screen). It was a female with a different hoot way off to the east! I tracked it down to my husband's aunt and uncle's farm a mile east of us (the air must have been just right.) The female's hoot had three syllables to the second part (just like Alice, Virginia & Wheezy), but the third part of her hoot had two syllables (Alice & Virginia have 1ish-going-on-two, and Wheezy has three.) Her mate had a hoot with the same rhythm as Wendell. I wasn't able to get them on tape, though. Bummer!

But Alice did finally begin her annual molt. It takes a few years for all wing feathers to be replaced, and if my assumptions are correct, she should drop her oddly-colored primary this year. I'm anxious to look at it up close, and to see what the new feather looks like. Will it be oddly colored too, or will it revert to the normal coloration??

The photo of the primary Alice dropped yesterday is much smaller than actual size. It's 12.5 inches long. Big feather, huh?