Story in the Snow
In a pine grove a vole tunneled through the snow last January. In some places a barely discernable ridge raised the snow’s surface like a scar. In places behind the tiny rodent, the arch of the tunnel roof collapsed leaving a diminutive trench. Tunnel and trench drawn by rodent back beneath the snow marked the trail. Moving end marked moving life. Even a human eye could have seen life traveling under cold white snow carpeting soft layers of pine needles. Suddenly talons pierced the soft rodent skin. Vole became sustenance for bird. Snow and vegetation litter became a talon-drawn picture of momentary chaos. A quarter thimble of crimson blood spotted the white. And the primary wing feathers, the flight fingers, recorded the moments when the great bird of prey, the Great Horned Owl, touched the bottom of the sky. Within a day the air warmed. Snow evaporated, memories of wings lifting, every molecule ascending, feathers in the wind.
posted by Rory Shock at 4:22 PM
22 Comments:
poor vole, owl-food. We had a large owl take up a night-time hunting position at the corner roof of our house for a few seasons. When I took the dogs out for their midnight run, he would sneak up out of nowhere, like a low-flying night plane, practically brushing my hair with his wings. He did a good job of keeping the mice & rats away, just a little messy pkg to find every so often. Great bird of prey, so beautiful when they fly out of the night, bullet-head leading the way, silent death! Thanks for reminding me of him. D.K.
I enjoyed your post so much. I love to watch owls or any other birds of prey in action, such power and grace. Thanks for posting and keep em coming.
Wow! CSI: RORYSHOCK!
delightful posting dear mr shock. your words were beautiful. i enjoyed this posting a great deal. even though it involved the cycle of life (and death) it was still very gentle i thought
(by the way we had a big fat wild turkey on a roof (first floor roof) at work yesterday. i work IN THE CITY.......
The balance of nature isn't always kind but if left alone it tends to keep its balance in check.
hi, rory, i was encouraged to check out your blog and i'm glad I had a free moment from the demands of the home office to do so...
well-written post and as PoP says the balance of nature isn't always kind, but illustrates the cycle of life, death and rebirth
i have heard many great horned owls in the woods surrounding my home, usually they start with their calling in the February night and I've gotten good enough at imitating them to cause plenty of avian consternation, I'm sure....but there have been no calls this winter or the one previous and I wonder if I've driven them away? fortunately my loon calls and chickadee whistles have never had that effect on those birds...
Nice one Rory, your magnificently tuned in to the natural world.
hello maineiac ... welcome ... yeah their call is a beautiful and familiar part of nature ... sorry they've moved out of your area for now ... who knows ... maybe just a natural thing like the death of an individual ... they checked you out and said, wow ... that is one huge owl ... I'm not gonna mess with its territory ... wow if that's the case that's a pretty heady tribute to the quality of your great horned owl impression ... or maybe the bunny population crashed ... or ,.,. interesting though ... ah the loons are beautiful in their breeding plumage don't see too many down this way but did see one lone guy the day before yesterday, just passin' through I guess ... and chickadees are beautiful little guys ... pop yeah ... I'm all for leaving it alone as much as possible ... it may be cruel ... but it never is as cruel as stuff humans can come up with ... forrest glad you dug it ... Neil ... I don't have tv but I know what you mean from reading bout it ... reading stories from things left behind whether tracks or whatever is fascinating ... some real trackers amazed me with what they can see and their base of knoweldge ,... there are so many more "impressions" out there than we usually do (or can) see ... fascinating stuff ... mary ... thanks ... yeah never met a bird of prey that wasn't beautiful, graceful, and good at what it does ... from the wee kestrel to the mighty eagle ... anonymous whoever you are thanks for comin' back ... lovely comment ... and thanks in turn for reminding me of when I lived out in the midwest ... almost nightly owl encounters some times of year when out with my dog and at times a great horned would fly a hedge/fence corridor like you said out of nowhere, from behind me, quite low over my head, past me ... sometimes I would see him perched on a pole overlooking a field, ear tufts silhouetted on a moonlit night ... they are silent ... their wing feathers are specially soft and constructed along the leading edge to be silent slicing through the air ... I guess much of their potential prey can hear things at levels not perceived by our ears ... anyway thanks everybody for visiting
loc ... I guess your comment just came in while I was writing the last one ... thanks for visiting this post ... and thanks for your so kind comment ... nature is often my savior ... I know it is for so many of us ...
hey rory, it's me D.K. (hope you don't mind my being anonymous). I wish I had a picture of the owl who graced our yard for awhile. I think he may have been a Great Grey. He was very large, I never saw any "ears" & he flew VERY close to the ground. His hoot was quite soft, not what I expected from a bird of this size. Maybe you'll know, do Great Greys ever make it down to So Calif, inland mtns/valleys? We saw lots of pale barn owls too, but this guy was unique. We were semi-rural, in a fairly undeveloped area, cougar country really. Red-tailed hawks screeching all day long. D.K.
wow..really incredible...and so beautiful...
( My son and I studied Animal Scat and prints one fall- we had a hard time getting anyone to join us in our project- I bet you would have?)
( we had a mama and baby cougar living under our deck in the NW...it was a Very Interesting project...)
Beautiful post Rory. Now I'm dying for a walk in the snow.
and rose ... thanks for your kind words ... turkey on the roof ... that's cool ... that must have been a sight ... don't sights like that just make the spirit of the day cool? like enigmas gulls rising ...
dk: there's a good range map at the cornell ornithology site ... and it looks like the recognized range gets pretty close to you .... 'course not all birds "obey" the range maps ... and there was an irruption of great greys in the more eastern parts of the us the past year or two 'cause of a crash in the vole population in the boreal forest, they say, as I recall ... I'm gonna try to put the cornell orn link into this comment ... here goes:
great grey owl range
dk: well, shit that didn't work ... you can just google great grey owl range and go to the cornell site to check out the map if you like ...
enigma: yeah, I love the study of tracks and scat ... always looking for and at them ... fascinating ... okay ... that sounded a little weird that bit about loving scat ... but you know what I mean ... tracking is way cool ... one reason why I like snow (or mud) it makes it easy even for us amateurs ... the tracks I see most regularly, the common ones: coyote, racoon, turkey, deer, squirrel ... always happy to see that they've been there ... and to know they're in the 'hood even when I don't see them ... wow a cougar under the porch that is awesome ... LG thanks ... yeah walks in the snow are wonderful aren't they?
Cool pictures and a beautiful description of the event. I felt like I could see it happening. Thanks for sharing, Rory.
thanks for the cornell range map, rory. Looks like it would have been rare, but not impossible for a Great Grey to be so far south. We recently moved up to SW Utah & using that map, it seems we will most likely be seeing Great Horned Owls (being harrassed by crows). Oh & the usual barn owls. You were so sweet to pass along helpful info. Easy to see you love your subject(s)! D.K.
on friday when i left work a hawk kept flying over me and on monday we had the turkey (pictures of both on the nutmeg grater
crappy pictures, but i DID get a couple! i work JUST OUTSIDE downtown hartford (1/2 mile or so) and very near I-84. i understand the hawks being around but NOT the turkey.
i miss working in avon (which was a little rural community about 10 or 12 miles west of hartford). we had all sorts of animals every day from deer to fox to bear to coyotes. i always think it's a GOOD sign to see an animal
nice post. when I am back home at my parents farm, I see owls all the time. They are beautiful creatures
This is REALLY COOL!
I see animal "scene of the crimes" too often - but I understand they are necessary in the circle of life. I usually see feathers, though, where a cat got a pidgeon. Although last year I saw a rattler eating a baby bunny. First, it was disturbing; then it was as interesting as it gets for a nature nerd such as myself. I see owls up in the park but only if I get up there before 7:00 a.m. They are pretty bold; they don't fly away when I near them, as long as they know I can't reach them with an arm or something. They are so beautiful. Sometimes, the whole family sits together on one branch.
Owls rock. Poor vole, though... I think they rock too...
yeah, helen ... yeah
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