Who's Who a rare opportunity to see owls up-close
On Friday residents and visitors to the Flathead Valley will have a rare opportunity to get a bird’s-eye view of three owls native to Montana.
Ranger Derrick Rathe will be joined by Igor, a barn owl; Homer, a great gray owl, and Tika, a snowy owl, at Lone Pine State Park for the Who’s Who for Owls presentation at 6 p.m. The talk should take about an hour and has three goals: to teach people where they should go looking for certain types of owls; to let people know owls are something to be curious and happy about, rather than afraid of; and to introduce attendees to the various types of owl calls made by the 15 types of owls that live in Montana.
“We want to give people around the Flathead, including nonresidents who have come here to visit, the opportunity to get a close look at the live owls and to teach people about the differences between owls and other birds of prey,” Rathe said. “We’re going to go over what makes owls excellent hunters, and compare this to hawks and eagles. We’ll look at what gives them an advantage at night. And we want to show the importance of owls, especially since they are often misunderstood.
“Hollywood has given owls a bad reputation,” he continued. “In a horror film in the dead of night there is always the sound of a great horned owl call. But people shouldn’t be afraid when they hear an owl. Owls are to be oohed and aahed over; they inspire a sense of awe and wonder, and they are a sign of a healthy forest.”
Another focus of the program is how individuals can have a positive effect on the fate of local owls.
“What people don’t always understand is there are things they can do to help,” Rathe noted. “We talk a lot about not using poison to deal with rats and mice. Because when they die, if they get eaten by an owl, then the owl is poisoned and will likely die. We encourage people to do live trapping. I also like barn cats, but growing up I remember losing quite a few of those to hawks and other predators, so that won’t work for everyone, but live trapping is a solution that won’t harm owls.”
Another threat to owls and birds of prey is being struck by a vehicle, he noted. Once, when living in Bozeman, Rathe witnessed a bird diving in for a kill when it was struck by a vehicle and injured.
“When they are in that dive, they are so focused on their target that they don’t see what is happening around them,” Rathe said. “We were lucky, we knew who to call in Bozeman and got the animal taken care of, but a lot of the time people don’t know what to do when they witness something like this. The key is knowing who to call.”
The Flathead Valley has two organizations that rescue wild birds: Montana Wild Wings can be reached at 406-250-1070, and the Montana Bird Lady can be reached at 406-249-7800.
Tickets for the Who’s Who event are $4 for ages 13 and up, and free for kids 12 and under. For reservations call 406-755-2706 ext. 2.
Photographer Brenda Ahearn may be reached at 7584435 or bahearn@dailyinterlake.com.