Saturday Stories. #5

Good morning to everyone! It is a cloudy and much cooler day, the temperature is 10F (-12C). That north wind yesterday made a big difference in the temperature. It is also snowing lightly this morning, I think we have a couple inches of new snow out there, so it looks white again. All of our snow was gone and it looked more like spring than early February. 

It was nice while it lasted, but now winter has returned and will likely stay with us now until spring really does arrive, whenever that happens. I was going to write about another winter story, but, I decided a nice warm story would be better. Though we have the cold of winter with us for half the year, or longer sometimes, I still prefer the warmer months. 

Male Downy Woodpecker at the suet feeder.

That is just the way I am. I like heat. Anyway, some years ago when I was still doing owl surveys for the Canadian Wildlife Service, I got a phone call from a young woman, an avid birdwatcher from the southern part of our province. She participated in these owl surveys down south and her and her family were here camping at one of our parks. 

She asked if she could join me one night since she knew I did the owl survey in this area. She was hoping to hear or see a Great Gray Owl, which would be a new bird for her. So, I picked her up at around 10:30pm while there was still a bit of daylight left and we headed out to a spot I had seen Great Gray owls before. I started calling and it was only 5 minutes and 2 of them came flying into a nearby pine tree. 

This is another one.

Jenny was ecstatic at seeing two of these owls. Then we went off to another remote spot I had not checked before. I began calling again and soon a Barred Owl returned my call. I kept it up and one soon came to a birch tree about 10 feet away from us. The moon was nearly full and was shining on the owl so nicely, so we were able to get a good look at it. 

The owl stayed for several minutes and then flew off again. This was June, so it was likely feeding some large babies by this time. It is quite possible they were out of the nest by now but still with the parents. The next few stops did not produce anything and I could tell Jenny was getting tired so I offered to take her back. 

She said no however, she wanted to do an all nighter looking for owls, something she had not done before. So, we went on to another spot. At this spot I thought I heard a smaller owl, so I started calling for it. Sure enough we soon had a Saw-whet owl calling back to us and it came fairly close, but we never did see it. Then it flew off so I started to call the larger owls and finally got an answer from a Great Horned owl. 

Here we have a female Hairy Woodpecker, basically identical to the Downy Woodpecker, but twice as big.

It came close, but not close enough to see it. After it flew away we drove to another spot and by then Jenny was sleeping. It was around 2am by this time. So I let her sleep for a while and she woke up about half an hour later. She apologized for falling asleep, I just chuckled. Off we went for a walk and I called for owls, but heard no replies. The moon was really shining brightly that night so it was easy to see all around. 

At one point I suddenly stopped and Jenny squeezed my hand as tightly as she could. There was a pair of wolves about 30 feet ahead of us. There was not much undergrowth in this area, just lots of tall pines. The wolves had stopped when they saw us, one was sitting, the biggest one was standing, both were staring at us. 

Here she is again.

The big wolf started walking toward us. While I was watching him, the other wolf disappeared. I told Jenny to start walking backwards. We did this for a bit then Jenny stopped and said the other wolf was behind us, only about 10 or 12 feet behind us. That was getting too close. I told Jenny to remain calm and gave her the keys to my car, just in case. 

We started walking off to the side. Both wolves sat down and watched us for a bit, then turned and walked the other way. When we got back to the car Jenny said she was happy to breathe again. She asked how I could remain so calm. I told her that I had many encounters with animals over the years, including wolves and bears. 

Another Pine Siskin on my hand with its head tilted.

Well, guess I will stop here, there is more to the story yet so maybe I will continue it next time. Wish I had pictures of those owls to share, but I had no camera in those days, neither did Jenny. So, I will share some of my bird friends once more. Have a great weekend everyone and God bless! 

Steve and Muffin. 

©2024 Steve McLeod.