I had been wandering around for a while on Saturday afternoon, and I thought the birding had been pretty quiet. The weather was cool and a little rainy off and on. Thus, I found myself exploring the world of mosses which abound throughout the arboretum. This had me moving at a snail’s pace, which allowed me to be more tuned into my awareness and to make greater observations.
I was on the meadow’s edge near the White Oak Pavilion when a chickadee grabbed my attention. Its vocalizations seemed more intense as it broke the quietness of the late afternoon. As I watched and listened, I thought the notes had a different rhythm. Also, they were being repeated fairly continuously. Then a song sparrow popped up on top of some snowberry beside me and was calling. As I gazed forward out into the meadow, I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. As I looked over there, I saw a small bird fly out of the grass and land on the lower branch of an oak. I looked through my binoculars to see that it was a northern pygmy owl with a rodent in its talons! That chickadee had seen it and I think the song sparrow knew from the chickadee’s alarm calls that there was a predator. The song sparrow was on the ground along the bank of the river and I don’t think it could have seen that owl.
As I watched the owl, I was surprised at how much it constantly whipped its head around looking in every direction. It stayed there for about 10 minutes and then, to my surprise, it flew closer to me. As it took off to fly, its body dipped down in the air from the rodent’s weight and it went to the first branch it could land on. It stayed there for a few minutes and then took another short flight to a limb in the next tree. From here it started to tear apart its prey. After about another 10 minutes it hopped down to sit on a clump of lung lichen seen in the first photograph.
Unfortunately, I had somewhere to be and I was already running late. I wanted to stay and watch it eat. I didn’t think it could eat that whole rodent in one sitting. I wonder where it went for the night to stash the rodent to eat later. The Northern Pygmy Owl hunts mostly by day, so I assume it finds somewhere like a tree cavity to rest at night.
In the second photograph, you can see the dark patches on the back of its neck that look like eyespots. This is such an amazing creature and I am thankful that I got to see it. Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. I look forward to seeing you out there.
