First off, I love owls, so this book had my name all over it. I found this book on someone’s chair at a local hot spring. Being the nosy guy I am, I leaned over when they weren’t looking and snagged the title. I didn’t ask them about it because it might have outed me as a total rube when it comes to birding prowess.
Call me crazy, but when I read about remote Russia in the dead of winter, I find myself searching Google Flights.
Got my name all over it. Jonathan Slaught’s “Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest Owl” is part scientific study, part adventure story. I loved all of it, but what’s most entertaining is a combination of the owl itself, which to me looks hilarious, and the odd assortment of Russians the author encounters along the way. The owl looks like me when I first get out of bed. Hair pointing in all the wrong places.
Slaught and his Russian colleagues spend years tracking and researching the owls. They eventually learn to trap, tag, and study the little critters. Well, not so little critters. They are the size of a small child, but way better at fishing than any small child I’ve known. Like many species in this great world of ours, the owls are under threat, mostly because logging companies tend to log the exact location the owl needs most. But not all is lost, my friends. The logging companies don’t want to damage owl habitat, so Slaught has had some success in educating them on which trees to cut. If you like Russians, birds, snow, adventure, and the natural world, this baby might just be for you.
Speaking of owls. Both of these beauties were so close to my house I could have photographed them naked, and maybe I did. You can’t tell me these faces don’t have an impact. They seem totally fine with me being there, jockeying for position with my long lens. (no pun intended). They look at me like, “silly human.” Personally, when I encounter an owl, all I can think about his how we can make sure to protect these creatures. What a unique little unit.
Comments 12
I saw the word Owls on the latest post and I had ro immediately click. I am fascinated with owls. Probably is my spirit animal too. Love observing and being around them. Reminds me of a trip I took to photograph the Great Grey and it took 2 days of tracking to find, such an amazing encounter.
Very cool that you got to witness the Long-Eared they are pretty elusive vs the Great-Horned, which I just recently saw nesting on a steal beam underneath a solar panel at my local grocery store.
Our love for owls must be a Capricorn thing. Will check this book out, I think it will be a real hoot.
Author
They are incredible creatures. I found where they were roosting last year, but since then, then have moved on. Sometimes at night, right after sunset, they will fly by me on the patio. Silent.
We have these great horned owls here in southern Nevada. They’re beautiful and sail by overhead in total silence. I’ve photographed and filmed them a few times but they’re nocturnal and seldom seen.
Author
Same. They love to buzz me on the patio at night. Silently.
What a Hoot
Author
I knew someone would come with something like this, and I love it.
When I’m out camping and darkness sets in and the wisest of them all start howling in the woods, I feel comforted. It’s like they tell me, it’s all going to be alright, we’re here and we’ll cover your .ss.
Author
There is something reassuring about that sound.
I woke up this morning. it took a while. but I realized that today was the tomorrow I’d been waiting for.
Author
Yes. Today is today and not tomorrow. Easy to forget.
I was out looking for owls in Hokkaido a few years ago in the depths of winter. Didn’t see a thing, but I bet they saw me.
Author
They are SO camo’d out. I just got my ticket from Hokkaido to Hong Kong, and another from HK to Spain. Gonna be an interesting spring.