A Bird with Mixed Reviews

Here is Barred Owl (Strix varia) I photographed at the lower dam on Lake DeGray. I know many of you saw him on our original blog a few months back. They are such neat birds. I was just looking around at all the folklore surrounding this bird and was surprised to find the mixed reactions people have had to this species down through time. For example, the ancient Greeks revered the owl as protector of the city of Athens and of the Greek armies; they even put its emblem on their coins. The Romans, on the other hand, loathed the Owl and saw it as an omen of ill will. Even the Bible speaks of the Owl as being a creature of the night and thus of unsavory animal (Job 30:29). Early English folklore also portrayed the Owl as a bird of doom; a creature of the night closely associated with witchcraft and evil. And yet today in America we equate an Owl with wisdom, while a traditional English belief was that if you walked around an Owl in a tree, it would turn and turn its head to watch you until it wrung its own neck (not very smart). Other folklore surrounding Owls include weird cures; for example, alcoholism was treated with Owl egg. The imbiber was prescribed raw eggs and a child given this treatment was thought to gain lifetime protection against drunkenness. Owls' eggs, cooked until they turned into ashes, were also used as a potion to improve eyesight. Owl Broth was given to children suffering from Whooping-cough.

Now for some facts about this bird. Its range encompasses the entire eastern US and they are monogamous. Although a nocturnal hunter, they can be active during the day (I got lucky to get these shots). These birds are holding their own and even expanding their ranges into the northwestern US.