Evening star., 1945-01-26
This and That
By Charles E. Trace1peu
ARLINGTON. VA.

Dear Sir:
Your column, which / have read
every day for years, has done lots to
Improve my disposition, as I used to
get peev1sh at squirrels and starlings
until l began taking your view of them
that they all had some good points,
which we should try to like and ignore
anything We couldn't admire, and this
has made me more tolerant and patient
even with people who haven't much
about them to like.
My place includes about three acres
OF original forest, and outside of the
clearing containing the house and gar
den 1t Is a jungle of heavy under
growth, largely honeysuckle, wild grape
and briars. I have maintained three
feeding stations for several years. SO
you may know have had many bird
and animal visitors, some of whom call
pers1stently for their breakfast.
We have been trying for three or
four days to identify large bird which
l cannot describe very accurately. as
1 have never been closer than about
200 feet, and even with a field glass
cannot get good look at 1t because
OF intervening branches.
This morning 1t sat for over an hour
In tree which it usually favors. on
limb about 30 feet above ground
and faced right into my glass. then
flew to another nearby forest, showing
wing spread about like a turkey
buzzard
The picture Of the great horned
owl in Birds OF America would con-
vince me that I had the gentleman
1dent1ned on contour, and his descrip-
ton corresponds largely to that in nv
bird books, and know we have owls
around, but could not distinguish
his color except that it Is a general
brown.
II could not distinguish his horns
or ears, and many birds feeding on the
ground nearby did not seem disturbed.
while last summer we always knew
when an owl arrived from dusk on.
by the turmoil the birds set up, espe-
cially the thrushes.
1T quite evidently is not a hawk.
judging from the indifference of ali
the feeding birds.
I have doubts about my identifica-
ton, as I have never seen owls about
so openly and fearlessly in daylight,
but have now seen this visitor three
times, from several minutes to an hour.
My first sight Of him was when he
rose from the ground to the same limb
on which have always seen him, but
l was too far away to see any details.
This morning about 10 o'clock I dis
covered him, in the same place, and
trained my glass on him, but the
weather was too hazy and intervening
limbs prevented perfect sight.
Does any of this give you a clew?"
VERY appreciatively yours, B. E."
Observers along the Potomac re-
Gently identified one short-eared owl,
and two horned grebes. Bald-headed
eagles have been seen along the shores.
All of these are more or less brown.
but the wing spreads are quite different.
The lengths of the, horned grebes is
IA inches, SO its wing spread is not
SO large
The great horned owl, which has been
seen in times past hereabouts, is "a
inches long, with wing spread of
go inches.
The bald eagle is from 80 to 43 inches
long, with spread of wings 61a to tx
feet
The babies are larger than the parents.
and during the first year the wing
expanse is sometimes more than q
foot greater than the wing spread of
the older birds.
Turkey vultures are 2h feet long.
with wing spread of feet.
We think the chances are good that
our correspondents bird is the great
horned owl, with the bald eagle second
choice at such a distance
Owls often fly around in daylight,
The belief that they cannot is in error.
The favorite food of the great horned
owl is poultry and rabbits, which may
be why small birds are not afraid of
it. In recent years it was confined
to the heavily wooded sections. espe-
cially around Plummers Island and Fort
Humphreys. At one time young were
found near Rockville. Md.