I've been following Flaco in the news - he was refusing the dead rats that were put out for him, and the zoo authorities recently discovered that he was refusing to eat because he was already full of NYC rats that he'd managed to hunt down all by himself. That owl DOES hunt. 🦉
Ah, Collective Bird watching! In California, our company had a birding club. Todd was our host, and he'd get on the phone with the Audubon Society to see if there were any "special sightings. That frequently got us well into the state - a "Lek" of ruffled grouse "drumming" with the air sacks in their necks in Kern County, then the next week, down to the Mexican border to see a rose-breasted grosbeak that had drifted from its normal flyway! It's nice when you have some experts to guide you - as you had in Central Park!
"Birders" sometimes consider themselves "Odd Birds" - when we're spotting flying creatures by ourselves, that is! Sometimes we 're "persona non grata" - out in the farmlands, especially, where a cavalcade of assorted vehicles may show up because of the news of a sighting somewhere. In populated counties, we birders are just "Oh, Well! Them Again!" But in one rural county close to the border, the rancher actually threatened us with his intention to call the local police force! On the other hand, at that grouse lek, there must have been 30 or more cars congregated on that one field. Since we were from Orange County, we were the "Southern Contingent" - but there were folks there from north of San Francisco Bay, as well!
One thing about birding (and other related activities) is that it gives folks a chance to meet others with similar interests. Up by Bishop, for example, one time I was driving over a bridge, and wondered why there were so many cars and pickups parked around? Answer: Rainbow Trout release from a local fish hatchery! The whole county heard the news, and it seemed as if everyone was there, in waders, with their favorite pole! The idea of course, is to stock the stream with enough egg-bearing females to get the baby fish up into the Coast Mountain Range - for fishing folk to enjoy most of the season. But with an neighborhood alarm system like that , it makes me wonder how many of those big-bellied gals ever made it to their favorite hatching places?
I was just looking again at your page about unexpected consequences. Here's another one - the "Folks In The Know" sometimes minimize the anticipated results! But as one of those trout fishers said to me when I suggested that perhaps it would be better to let the ladies follow their instincts, he just shrugged and said "That's Life! First Come, First Served..."
When we moved to Midland, MI, 34 years ago we dug a pond behind the house we bought, planted trees around it, and I dumped in a bucket of swamp water to jump start the ecosystem. I also made a wood duck box and mounted it on a pipe driven into the mud through a hole in the ice one winter. It all worked and soon we had wood ducks every spring. About a decade ago, we got a winter resident, a screech owl. I didn't make note of its first appearance because it's hard to recognize the start of an era. We call it Screechy and I don't know its sex, so the name seems suitably androgenous. We see it out our window, in the hole of the box about 30 yards away, sitting motionless, almost every winter afternoon. It seems to like watching the bird feeders as it plans its evening meal. In the spring, at ice-out, the gorgeous wood ducks return and kick Screechy out the same day and we wonder if we'll ever see it again. And every winter it comes back. Right now I'm in my recliner suffering with Covid for the first time and watching a terrific snowstorm. Screechy is watching, too, from the hole in its box keeping an eye out for his next meal while I'm having another cup of coffee.
Love your title today. We need this humility to temper our hubris. But it’s more than the the sheer volume of data now available that protects mystery. Even if someone was able to assemble every scrap of information about me, mystery would remain. Heck, I remain a mystery to myself!
I get the freedom that NYC anonymity provides. Heads would still turn here in St Paul. I did wince a bit at your wide open spaces version of our western expansion. There is the matter of the violent displacement of the prior inhabitants, after all. But I get your point.
D. W. Griffith wrote about his younger days as an actor, seeing traffic stop on Broadway at the sight of Lionel and John Barrymore walking down the sidewalk.
An enchanting story, especially from an OWG in New York City, thank you.
You mention our age of surveillance cameras and I have to tell of an occurrence that happened just today at my home. My wife bought us a set of surveillance cameras for our condo, she wanted to catch the neighbor and their dog pooping and not collecting it on our lawn. She wants to confront the offending party and report them to our condo association so they can be fined and made an example of bad neighboring.
I installed the cameras so she has 24/7 surveillance of our lawn and house to catch such an offender and plus any other malcontents and rule breakers. The device is linked to her cellphone and it gives her an audible alarm for all events of anyone who would approach or enter our property. It seems to be over the top in surveillance for just a neighborhood condo but it makes her happy.
Well, just last night she heard her cellphone alarm and thought that it was reporting a person had approached our front entrance and than left as soon as they entered the area. She got out of bed and went to the entrance to find nobody there. Getting on her shoes and coat she opened the entrance to go outside to search for this mystery person who walked up and then left our front door but as soon as she got outside she realized that it was an unwise to search for someone who could have malice to her so she turned around and got back into the house and locked the door, tight.
A fact about my wife that could partially explain her actions is she is a retired Detroit Police officer and it’s just her nature to respond and defend. She is quite a lovely person, very giving and compassionate to people in need. Rules and laws are very important to her sense of justice and order. So, please don’t forget to pick up our dog’s excrement if they are on our lawn.
Back to the story, the next morning she reviewed the camera’s video date for the night and she couldn’t identify last night’s visitor. She downloaded the video and sent it to her sister who has a similar surveillance system with no positive result. She became kind of obsessed with finding who this person was, so more resources were used, and other cameras of the next door neighbors were asked for and reviewed.
Finally, the mystery person was revealed, it was my wife. The phone alarmed on a previous video and she didn’t note when the video was captured by the system. It was taken several hours before the phone alarm in the early evening, not at the time that the surveillance system alarmed after we had gone to bed.
Thanks for sharing your experiences. What a rich and amazing life you have created for yourself. It is fun to see Flaco free and all the New Yorkers out there rooting for him.
Welcome to the age of invisibility! Once (40 years ago) I could turn a head or two. Never more (saith the raven). Sometimes I feel invisible but when I catch a glimpse in a mirror I see what they must be seeing. Peering back at me is a grandmotherly lady who looks more like my elderly mother than I. Clearly, I am incognito. Welcome to town.
I'm there, too. I don't turn any heads, but everybody (from little kids to folks older than I) have decided that I'm a "dear." It's sort of sweet, though I did give a guy at the local lumberyard a conniption fit when he caught me loading 60 pound bags of sand into the back of my car - "You shouldn't be doing that!" He took over the job, but of course I unloaded them once I got home. I might look like a little old dearie, but I'm one tough broad! 😉
OH! The "dear" label!! I told my doctor about how annoying (and condescending) that term is to an older lady. (Worse yet is when they address me as "young lady!") My doctor and I worked through a bunch of terms and I finally decided that he could call me "babe" - yes, we laughed... but still, I'm going to call him babe on my next visit!
We all need to find a place or nest we call home, showman-writer-story teller or wise owl in New York City. Take note. At our age, let's keep doing what we do that's worth doing until we can't. "Much is known," but not all is known or even most of it so let's get strappin' before we can't strap anymore.
We are excited to have tickets for your Maryville show tonight. We are celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary. It isn’t until August, but we were not sure any of us would still be alive by then.
😂😂😂. Good for Flaco!!!!! FREEDOM!!! May he live in Central Park 1,000 years!!!
Michael Mohr
‘Sincere American Writing’
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/
OWG = Owl With Guts?
But seriously I hope someone feeds that owl. It doesn't sound like he can hunt.
I've been following Flaco in the news - he was refusing the dead rats that were put out for him, and the zoo authorities recently discovered that he was refusing to eat because he was already full of NYC rats that he'd managed to hunt down all by himself. That owl DOES hunt. 🦉
Ah, Collective Bird watching! In California, our company had a birding club. Todd was our host, and he'd get on the phone with the Audubon Society to see if there were any "special sightings. That frequently got us well into the state - a "Lek" of ruffled grouse "drumming" with the air sacks in their necks in Kern County, then the next week, down to the Mexican border to see a rose-breasted grosbeak that had drifted from its normal flyway! It's nice when you have some experts to guide you - as you had in Central Park!
"Birders" sometimes consider themselves "Odd Birds" - when we're spotting flying creatures by ourselves, that is! Sometimes we 're "persona non grata" - out in the farmlands, especially, where a cavalcade of assorted vehicles may show up because of the news of a sighting somewhere. In populated counties, we birders are just "Oh, Well! Them Again!" But in one rural county close to the border, the rancher actually threatened us with his intention to call the local police force! On the other hand, at that grouse lek, there must have been 30 or more cars congregated on that one field. Since we were from Orange County, we were the "Southern Contingent" - but there were folks there from north of San Francisco Bay, as well!
One thing about birding (and other related activities) is that it gives folks a chance to meet others with similar interests. Up by Bishop, for example, one time I was driving over a bridge, and wondered why there were so many cars and pickups parked around? Answer: Rainbow Trout release from a local fish hatchery! The whole county heard the news, and it seemed as if everyone was there, in waders, with their favorite pole! The idea of course, is to stock the stream with enough egg-bearing females to get the baby fish up into the Coast Mountain Range - for fishing folk to enjoy most of the season. But with an neighborhood alarm system like that , it makes me wonder how many of those big-bellied gals ever made it to their favorite hatching places?
I was just looking again at your page about unexpected consequences. Here's another one - the "Folks In The Know" sometimes minimize the anticipated results! But as one of those trout fishers said to me when I suggested that perhaps it would be better to let the ladies follow their instincts, he just shrugged and said "That's Life! First Come, First Served..."
When we moved to Midland, MI, 34 years ago we dug a pond behind the house we bought, planted trees around it, and I dumped in a bucket of swamp water to jump start the ecosystem. I also made a wood duck box and mounted it on a pipe driven into the mud through a hole in the ice one winter. It all worked and soon we had wood ducks every spring. About a decade ago, we got a winter resident, a screech owl. I didn't make note of its first appearance because it's hard to recognize the start of an era. We call it Screechy and I don't know its sex, so the name seems suitably androgenous. We see it out our window, in the hole of the box about 30 yards away, sitting motionless, almost every winter afternoon. It seems to like watching the bird feeders as it plans its evening meal. In the spring, at ice-out, the gorgeous wood ducks return and kick Screechy out the same day and we wonder if we'll ever see it again. And every winter it comes back. Right now I'm in my recliner suffering with Covid for the first time and watching a terrific snowstorm. Screechy is watching, too, from the hole in its box keeping an eye out for his next meal while I'm having another cup of coffee.
Such an entertaining piece! And I think the owl undoubtedly enjoys his freedom and will be just fine!
Love your title today. We need this humility to temper our hubris. But it’s more than the the sheer volume of data now available that protects mystery. Even if someone was able to assemble every scrap of information about me, mystery would remain. Heck, I remain a mystery to myself!
I get the freedom that NYC anonymity provides. Heads would still turn here in St Paul. I did wince a bit at your wide open spaces version of our western expansion. There is the matter of the violent displacement of the prior inhabitants, after all. But I get your point.
D. W. Griffith wrote about his younger days as an actor, seeing traffic stop on Broadway at the sight of Lionel and John Barrymore walking down the sidewalk.
An enchanting story, especially from an OWG in New York City, thank you.
You mention our age of surveillance cameras and I have to tell of an occurrence that happened just today at my home. My wife bought us a set of surveillance cameras for our condo, she wanted to catch the neighbor and their dog pooping and not collecting it on our lawn. She wants to confront the offending party and report them to our condo association so they can be fined and made an example of bad neighboring.
I installed the cameras so she has 24/7 surveillance of our lawn and house to catch such an offender and plus any other malcontents and rule breakers. The device is linked to her cellphone and it gives her an audible alarm for all events of anyone who would approach or enter our property. It seems to be over the top in surveillance for just a neighborhood condo but it makes her happy.
Well, just last night she heard her cellphone alarm and thought that it was reporting a person had approached our front entrance and than left as soon as they entered the area. She got out of bed and went to the entrance to find nobody there. Getting on her shoes and coat she opened the entrance to go outside to search for this mystery person who walked up and then left our front door but as soon as she got outside she realized that it was an unwise to search for someone who could have malice to her so she turned around and got back into the house and locked the door, tight.
A fact about my wife that could partially explain her actions is she is a retired Detroit Police officer and it’s just her nature to respond and defend. She is quite a lovely person, very giving and compassionate to people in need. Rules and laws are very important to her sense of justice and order. So, please don’t forget to pick up our dog’s excrement if they are on our lawn.
Back to the story, the next morning she reviewed the camera’s video date for the night and she couldn’t identify last night’s visitor. She downloaded the video and sent it to her sister who has a similar surveillance system with no positive result. She became kind of obsessed with finding who this person was, so more resources were used, and other cameras of the next door neighbors were asked for and reviewed.
Finally, the mystery person was revealed, it was my wife. The phone alarmed on a previous video and she didn’t note when the video was captured by the system. It was taken several hours before the phone alarm in the early evening, not at the time that the surveillance system alarmed after we had gone to bed.
Technology, wow. right?
Love this tale especially as told by you!
Thanks for sharing your experiences. What a rich and amazing life you have created for yourself. It is fun to see Flaco free and all the New Yorkers out there rooting for him.
Welcome to the age of invisibility! Once (40 years ago) I could turn a head or two. Never more (saith the raven). Sometimes I feel invisible but when I catch a glimpse in a mirror I see what they must be seeing. Peering back at me is a grandmotherly lady who looks more like my elderly mother than I. Clearly, I am incognito. Welcome to town.
I'm there, too. I don't turn any heads, but everybody (from little kids to folks older than I) have decided that I'm a "dear." It's sort of sweet, though I did give a guy at the local lumberyard a conniption fit when he caught me loading 60 pound bags of sand into the back of my car - "You shouldn't be doing that!" He took over the job, but of course I unloaded them once I got home. I might look like a little old dearie, but I'm one tough broad! 😉
OH! The "dear" label!! I told my doctor about how annoying (and condescending) that term is to an older lady. (Worse yet is when they address me as "young lady!") My doctor and I worked through a bunch of terms and I finally decided that he could call me "babe" - yes, we laughed... but still, I'm going to call him babe on my next visit!
All the surveillance cameras, etc.??
Flacovision....24/7. Who's with me?!
Viva Flaco!
We all need to find a place or nest we call home, showman-writer-story teller or wise owl in New York City. Take note. At our age, let's keep doing what we do that's worth doing until we can't. "Much is known," but not all is known or even most of it so let's get strappin' before we can't strap anymore.
hi and thanks as usual witty funny and entertaining lol c
We are excited to have tickets for your Maryville show tonight. We are celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary. It isn’t until August, but we were not sure any of us would still be alive by then.