I’d like to say it’s this time of year– Autumn– where owls are seen more frequently, and certainly on everyone’s mind more.  But, that’s not the case with me. I think about owls all the time.  I would even go so far as to say an owl is my patronus.  That’s why I wanted to dedicate this post to these popular, mystical, beautiful, God-given creatures.  We have taken from them for so long, it is high time we gave back to them.

Pop Culture

Owls have been present in pop culture spanning back to my earliest recollections– in the 70s. Who remembers, or ever heard of Woodsy Owl?

Woodsy was the spokes-owl for an anti-pollution PSA for the United States Forest Service that was a direct response to real life behavior, as depicted in this scene in Mad Men:

 

Shocking, right?  Certainly to our modern sensibilities, and ironic given today’s rhetoric in political and pop culture.  But how fitting that Woodsy was the owl icon for the United States Forest Service, with an original motto, “Give a Hoot–  Don’t Pollute!”  How do you think that message would have gone over with Ad Man Don, or Ice Queen Betty?  Who knows, maybe Don would have come up with Woody’s current motto, “Lend a hand– care for the land”.

But owls are versatile– they are EVERYWHERE in pop culture:

Schilling products:

Decorating our homes (this fun LA Times article provides a timeline of how Owls came into the zeigest of decoration, dating back to Woodsy) :

Social Media (who saw these gifs go viral?):

And of course, in movies:

 Personal Experience

Who knows how much art informs life or vice versa, but my experience with owls goes back to when I was little and my grandmother had an owl that lived in a pine tree next to her kitchen window.  The owl had babies and one of them fell.  My grandmother took her in and nursed her back to health and returned her to her mother.  That owl family stayed loyal to my grandmother and remained in that tree as long as I could remember.  They were part of our family and I think I took it for granted.  Doesn’t everyone have owls in their family?

When I went to Fish Lake Camp in the thumb of Michigan, my fellow sixth graders and I were challenged to find owl pellets.  Knowing exactly what they looked like enabled me to be the only one to find not one but two– two more than anyone else!

And earlier this year when we were in Napa Valley on a tour of a winery, out tour guide told us of the great problem they had been having with Starlings ruining the grapes.  Rather than rely on chemicals or other environmentally unfit solutions, they put up owl houses.  The owls chased off the Starlings.  Cheers to owls for a problem solved!

 

Where Are All the Owls?

According to the Michigan DNR, “The short-eared owl prefers to love and nest in grassland habitat that is interspersed with shallow wetlands or wet meadows.”

You know, a place like this:

But, I haven’t seen owls in years.  So I needed to do some further investigation on where they all went..

 

Owls Need Us (almost as much as we need them)

Let’s recap– we’ve used owls in our advertisements, decorating our homes, entertaining us in films and on social media, and used them as economic protectors.  But what do they get from us?

Again, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources:

“Two of the largest migrants are the snowy owl and the great gray owl. Snowy owls can be found moving into Michigan during winter when the food supply on the arctic tundra is in short supply. Snowy owls have been recorded as far south as Lansing, Michigan. Because they rarely see humans on their northern homes, they are not timid and can be easily viewed for long periods of time. The great gray owl, while not as much a traveler, is more consistent in its visits to the eastern Upper Peninsula. They can be found in the northern woodlands hunting small rodents.”  But they go on to state, “Snowy owls often arrive in Michigan weakened and starving, dehydrated and infested with mites. Others die along their extended flight paths, which have taken them as far south this winter as Kansas and all along the northern tier states, the Great Lakes and out east to the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

When the owls move south, Michigan Department of Natural Resources offices typically receive several phone calls reporting snowy owl sightings or birds appearing sick or injured.”

 

How Can You Help?

By now, I’m sure I’ve charmed you with the owls of lore, and have demonstrated that the need is there to give back to them.  Although there are several 5o1c3 entities out there supporting owls, I’ve always found the best organization for wild life is the World Wildlife Federation.

We just symbolically adopted a snowy owl, and my company will match this effort:

 

No matter how small, won’t you consider contributing to maintaining the existence of these magnificent creatures?