The Watch Newsletter of the Watsonville Wetlands Watch Spring / Summer 2003

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Slough Niche: Under an Owl Moon

___It is unfortunate that most glimpses of the great horned owl come by day, when the bird is always annoyed, surprised in hiding, flushed from a roost or mobbed by crows. Only after sunset when shadows rule does the “cat” owl transform into a perfect mechanism of death, wise of mind and penetrating of awareness, its prey stopped with a gaze, its call the voice of prophecy.
___After dusk, you’ll often find the great horned owl perched prominently on a high limb at the edge of a meadow or woodland, face rotating like a radar dish to pinpoint the location of minute mouse rustlings or squeaks; watching with cylindrical, rod-packed eyes for the grey shape of a rabbit’s ear in the grass. Broad wings carry four pounds of muscle and sinew buoyantly aloft, comb-like leading edges fracturing air turbulence to near silence, feet spread with opposing toes into a shotgun pattern of daggers, closing on a mammal’s body, strong, scissor-like bill issuing a swift coup-de-grace.
___At 40-60 million years of age, owls are older than the Pajaro Valley itself, an alluvial basin laid down beneath the ocean a mere 2-5 million years ago. For tens of thousands of years, a great variety of macro predators, including lions, saber-tooth cats, civets, wolves, bears and many eagle and owl species patrolled the moist valley floor as the wetlands turned from fresh to salt and back again. Following the Pleistocene extinctions and the advent of hominids, the larger predators of Watsonville Slough were reduced to wolves, cougars, bears, coyotes and badgers. Even these are mostly gone now. Coyotes pay only sporadic visits; foxes are as apt to raid a bird’s nest as to nab an opossum. The great horned owl alone, adaptable and persistent, expanding after European settlement, remains to pursue the bird banes: skunk, 'possum, 'coon and cat.
___The one-square-mile core of the slough system is large enough to support one great horned owl pair, half of which is encountered at a day roost above mid-Hansen Slough. Perhaps 40-60 percent the diet of this bird is comprised of the brush cottontails that mow lawns along the terrace edges of West Struve slough; the rest is a smorgasbord of mezzo-predators, snakes, voles, mice and insects. Great horned owls occasionally will even wade, raccoon-like, after crawdads, frogs or fish.
___During late winter, the resident pair in the sloughs woos each other with loud hoots, then rekindles the thrall of affection with bowing and bill-touching. Crows’ nests are a favorite rearing site; the owls build no nests of their own, but will also use hawks’ and herons’ nests (sometimes evicting the occupants), rock shelves and crevasses, tree cavities, even barn attics and office cornices. One pair was discovered raising a family in an active eagle’s nest! The birds’ catholic tastes in architecture contributes to the species’ success.
___Certain tribes of Native Americans believed that if a warrior lived well and courageously, he would reincarnate as a great horned owl. Others knew that, when you heard the owl call your name, your days in this life were numbered. Remember this as you walk the terrace shadows and sniff the slough decay, watching under an owl moon …___- Jerry Busch

 

Earthday Celebration

___WWW joined many other local groups in the combined celebration of Earth Day and El Dia de los Niños on April 27 at Ramsey Park in Watsonville. Laura Kummerer devised a display of wetland plants and animals, including a tree frog hidden amongst marsh plants, which fascinated adults and children alike. She also showed children how Native Americans used cattails and had an active group of little girls braiding and weaving. ___Bob Lyons filled an enormous jug with slough water so that observers could see the many tiny animals that live in our sloughs. Other helpers included Laura’s mother, Carol, and Ellie Van Houten.
___An estimated 3,000 people came out to enjoy a beautiful sunny day and to learn more about how to protect our earth. Children danced and sang Mexican music to the applause of the large crowds. The City of Watsonville provided free drinks and hotdogs.
___We were pleased with the interest that many people showed as they learned new things about the sloughs in their backyards.___- Ellie Van Houten