On the Hunt for Owl Pellets

I had spent the entire day in front of the computer--something I hate!  The sun was shining and temperature warm for a January day in Illinois; nature was calling me.  So I headed out with my dog for a walk in the woods.

The purpose of this walk, I told myself, was to look for owl pellets.  I know we have a nesting pair of Barred Owls and a pair of Great Horned Owls.



And I have found a Great Horned Owl pellet in the past. I just stumbled across it while walking through the woods.  I knew to look for the whitewash on the tree or leaves under the tree.

So on this day, when I finally came across some whitewash, I began to get excited.  And looking up from the whitewash, the tree looked perfect for a roosting owl.  In fact, I have hear our Barred Owl calling from this direction.  My anticipation was growing.




But, no luck.  So I continued on.  Pretty soon, I found myself lost in thought.  My day in front of the computer left me brain dead, but now, all of a sudden the ideas came flowing one after another.  I was planning my next teacher workshop in my head.  And I couldn't wait to get back to write them down.  (Note to self: take notebook on the next walk.)


Maybe it was the fresh air in my lungs that inspired the fresh ideas I was imagining.  Whatever it was, my short walk in the woods did not fill my original purpose of finding owl pellets, but it did so much more.  I am ready to begin work anew with fresh ideas and inspiration. 

Bird field guide app

I think I am the last person on the planet to get an ipad, but finally I bought one.  My main motivation was to enjoy some of the apps I have been hearing about.  But also, there is the fact that since my husband joined the 21st century (just recently), I have not been able to get on the computer we share..




One of the first apps I explored was an app for bird field identification called
ibird.  I only spent a few minutes with the free app to realize I need to spend the
money and download one that cost about the same as a field guide.

First, I tried the search feature and put in features I knew about owls from this area--particularly the great horned and barred.  When that came up with no matches (this is the frustrating part for any on line search for i.d. in my experience), I decided to see which owls were in the app.  It turns out that there were only 2 owls in this version--the barn and short earred; neither are that common in my area.

from wikimedia

 I decided that is the tactic--don't include the most common birds in the free version so the for sale version will sell.  That being said, I will probably buy the for sale version.  There are features that I really like, such as the audio, and can see that it would really be useful. 

Audio (and the information about the songs) was what I was looking for.  I have been hearing both great horned and barred owls every night at my home.  It seems the great horned are calling earlier in the evening followed by a break and then the calls of the barred (my favorite).  I was wondering if this were always the case and something that has been noted by others??

http://www.arkive.org/great-horned-owl/bubo-virginianus/

I can't wait to download the full version and start enjoying all that I can learn from the app.  Ahh, it's good to be living in the 21st century.