FreeLists / va-richmond-general / [va-richmond-general] Great Horned Owls

["Michael Shapiro" <sc.tanager@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

    I had two Great Horned Owls in about a week, 300 miles apart. The first one 
was a few days after Christmas, where I grew up in Lawrenceville, NJ. Never 
heard an owl there before. I don't think I've ever seen/heard an owl in NJ, so 
this was a state bird for me. Yesterday, I had my first-ever yard bird (sort of 
- I don't really have a yard anymore) at my new place. It was (you guessed it) 
a Great Horned Owl in the small group of trees that buffers my apartment 
complex from 64 here in beautiful downtown Short Pump (apologies to Johnny 
Carson, though I'm sure he'd understand :-). This was also my 5th bird of the 
year (the first four being the "beautiful and rare" House Sparrow, Canada 
Goose, Ring-billed Gull, and Black Vulture. The latter three were all flying 
over I-95 between NJ and Ashland). Both owls were calling (the first at 1am, 
the latter at around 8pm). They sounded rather high compared to other GHO's 
I've heard, so I'm guessing they were females. Must be mating season. Neither 
did see either one, however.
    On a side note, my students today had a "Whoa!" encounter with a Turkey 
Vulture. It about 20 feet at the most above the trailer. One of the kids looked 
up as it went overhead and said, "WHOA! What is THAT?!?" We'd seen them many 
times but only at a distance. They thought it was funny that it was called a 
TURKEY Vulture, even though I've pointed them out to them before (the word 
"turkey" has to rank in the Top 10 of "Words that are Funny to Kids Under 10" 
:-).
Happy New Year everyone.

Michael Shapiro
(Beautiful Downtown) Short Pump
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