owl & a Green Heron

I found an unusual-looking owl on the place this morning. Or, more accurately, the titmice and chickadees found an unusual-looking owl and alerted me to its presence. The owl was sitting on a low branch in the crotch of a small tree well hidden in dense cover (it was visible -- by me anyway -- only from a certain spot and a certain angle). It was a fairly good sized owl and rather elongated in shape with ear tufts, a dark beak, large wide white eyebrows (if that's the right word to describe the wide chalk marks extended crossways from the beak), cross-hatching on the front with a vertical white center to the breast, reddish brown wings (I couldn't see the back) with irregular, large white markings on the shoulder. I couldn't see the eye color very well as the eyes were only slits but I think the eyes were yellow. Although this was a striking plumage and suggested something exotic, I finally decided that it was a young Screech Owl with relatively short ear tufts and a not-very-well-marked facial disc. The whole effect was somewhere between juvenile and adult plumage (a Screech Owl plumage I have never seen before).

I also had a Green Heron fishing in low water in the open water pool in the marsh. Although this fellow (or gal) was not using the fishing lure technique that Green Herons have become famous for (they toss something in the water or hold the lure in their beak just dipping it below the surface), it was fascinating to watch the hunched-up bird moving slowly in the mud, sitting stock-still for minutes at a time and then suddenly released the coiled-up neck like a spring to spear something in the water.

As a reminder, I am doing my "Birding Israel" (or "Birds of Israel") program, complete with slides, at the Quogue Wildlife Refuge tonight at 8 pm. This is an ELIAS (Eastern Long Island Audubon Society) event but the public is welcome.

Eric Salzman