The small burrowing owls are ground dwellers and have heads as round as a ball and long legs. They are covered in light-colored fluffy feathers from neck to feet, but elsewhere they are a soft brown.
These owls live in open country, mainly in the western half of the United States and in Mexico. They make their homes in underground burrows, sometimes digging out their burrows themselves but preferring to find one abandoned by ground squirrels or badgers. They come out of their burrows in the cool of the morning and evening to hunt for lizards, mice, gophers and insects but retreat to the burrows during the hot hours. These owls can see well in daylight and are strictly daytime hunters.
Half a dozen baby owls are usually raised each spring, with the parents caring for them a long time. Eventually the young ones learn to make it on their own.
The 27inch great gray owl is the largest in the owl family with a wide wingspan. Part of the year it makes its home in the far north. In times of snow, it plunges through the snow to catch mice and other rodents active on the ground underneath. But when the snow becomes frozen hard, finding food becomes difficult, and it usually migrates to southern Canada and some of the western states.
Its pale yellow eyes look small in its large, round face that is heavily ringed. The rest of its head is covered with short, light-brown feathers, and it has no ear tufts. The rest of its body is darker brown mottled with white.
This owl builds a nest made of sticks and moss high in an evergreen tree. It will use old nests of other large birds when possible. It hunts chiefly by night but also at dawn and dusk. Those in the far northern range hunt by day during the summer.
If space allowed, it would be interesting to look at the boreal, long-eared, northern spotted, screech, barred, saw-whet and Arctic owls, as well as many other varieties. But those we have looked at are examples of the ways of most owls.
They are all a reminder to us of the wonderful detail which the Creator provides for all His creatures. Let us not forget the wonderful detail in His loving care for each of us.
The psalmist expresses this so well in these Bible verses: “I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember Thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all Thy work, and talk of Thy doings” (Psalm 77:11-1211I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. 12I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings. (Psalm 77:11‑12)). Another verse says, “O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that [trusts] in Thee” (Psalm 84:1212O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee. (Psalm 84:12)). Is your trust in the Lord?
ML-02/05/2006