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UNBELIEVABLE!!!



And no, I'm not referring to the conclusion of the Super Bowl. This evening
I was invited to the residence of a Carolina Raptor Center volunteer who
told me of a Barred Owl that frequents her back yard gold fish pond. Seeing
as how I have experienced consecutive nights of frustration trying to call
in a pair in Reedy Creek Park that have grown wise to my broadcast tape, I
decided that the chance for "fresh blood" was to much to resist. My
expectation based on previously encountered suburban birds, was that it
would be no problem to get this bird to respond to the broadcast tape I use
when making an initial contact with a potential research subject. As we
stepped out onto the back porch, I prematurely concluded that I would not be
using the broadcast tape for there waiting in the bush by the hot tub was
the subject bird. The problem was that from the time we cracked the door to
the when I placed a mouse in my hand and whistled the owl did not even so
much as turn its head to glance at us. With a bird dead still and only 20
feet away, I accused April and CRC folks of a cold-hearted practical joke.
She swore up and down that the bird was alive and real. Even after I placed
the live mouse out into the yard about 15 feet from the bird, it's head
remained fixed in the opposite direction. I then decided to turn the volume
down on the boom box and play the broadcast. Only when I decided on this
course of action did the owl swivel its head around in our direction. When
it did, it immediately saw the free mouse conveniently placed in the edge of
the yard. The owl took the first three mice off into the woods, but I heard
no caterwauling and therefore could not conclude that a food exchange
occurred between it and its mate. Upon its return for a fourth and final
mouse, I insanely wondered whether or not this heretofore unprovisioned (to
the best of everyone's knowledge)Barred Owl would take the mouse from my
hand. I did not have a glove as I customarily handle captured birds
bare-handed and did not anticipate a capture tonight anyway. I walked over
the where I placed the 2nd and 3rd mice on a wooden porch rail, held out my
hand with the last white mouse. The owl, upon noticing the mouse, hesitated
for about 8 seconds and bounded from its perch toward me. I held my breath
and squinted my eyes, hoping that the owl would leave my hand essentially
intact if it actually followed through on its initial inclination. It
cleanly snatched the mouse from the palm of my outstretched hand as I tried
to hold back from urinating. I felt like the woman in Ray Steven's ballad of
the "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" cause it sure seemed as if "somethin' had
a hold of me". The bizarre thing to keep in mind is that this was my initial
encounter with a bird that presumably never had been provisioned in any form
or fashion, never had been rehabilitated or otherwise habituated. I've heard
about and read stories of birds doing this that had been gradually
conditioned to the presence of humans, but never a totally "wild" bird.
Perhaps a Barred Owl residing in suburban Charlotte can't be said to be
truly "wild"?

What an experience!!

Eric Harrold
Barred Owl researcher
Charlotte, NC