Thoughts on Owls and other Night Sounds
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| Screech Owl Bill Waller/Wikimedia Commons |
There was a time when we weren’t, and a time when we won’t be again, so let’s be happy that we’ve had the chance to live and experience, because for every human alive today there are many, many more that will never be. And there’s just so much to hear and see.
The reason I thought about that may seem a strange one. Right now I’m listening to an Eastern screech owl, busily tootling outside of my living room window. Even as I type this I can hear the wavering and falling tones, like a fluttering flute, followed by a wonderful whirring that almost seems supernatural. I think this is one of the most beautiful sounds I’ve ever heard.
Crickets catch my ear as well, and behind the lullaby of the screech owl I can hear them, like an army, sawing away at the night. There’s something peaceful about the sounds I hear at night. I can lie awake for hours just listening to the darkness. Though inevitably I succumb to the monotonous drone of the choir of crickets and fall asleep.
Often I like to learn about what I hear. And with today’s technology knowledge is just a few keystrokes away. When I first heard the screech owl I mistakenly assumed it was a whippoorwill, which is a nocturnal bird. I was hearing the sound at night, and it was a bird so I just made that conclusion. Well, the whippoorwill sounds like you might expect. It is named for the sound of its call. But a screech owl is not.
A common mistake is to assume that the screech owl actually screeches, but screech owls don’t screech. Not the Eastern screech owl, the Western screech owl, Whiskered screech owl, spotted screech owl, tropical screech owl, Northern tawny-bellied screech owl, or the Puerto Rican screech owl.
Barn owls can screech, and are sometimes referred to as a screech owl for that reason. They also must be at once the most spooky and beautiful birds to behold. Another ugly but beautiful bird, in my opinion, is the Turkey Vulture. We have a ton of those large scavengers soaring aloft here in northern New Jersey, with a keen eye out for road kill. Probably they use their nose too.
I’m also fond of the solemn sonata of the morning dove, but all too often they are drowned out by the annoying ruckus of the cackling of crows. Which usually start cawing outside my window when it’s time to get up for work. I don’t even need the alarm clock anymore. I guess, in their way, crows make a beautiful sound too. I couldn’t imagine a life without having heard them.
But crows aside. There is a lot to appreciate in our world. Don’t turn a blind eye, or a deaf ear to the wonders that abound. When you finally take notice, it just might be too late.
