Owl Survey

Four of us went out on the owl survey in Morrison County last night.  We started more than 30 minutes after sunset after a delicious and warming dinner in Pierz.  The sky was mostly cloudy and the wind was gusty and the temperature was cold.  We stood on the cold gravel road listening for owls.  At the third stop the wind picked up a little bit.  With my back to the wind, mother nature parted the hair on the back of my head where there usually is no part and made me cold right down to the scalp.  At the fifth stop we parked the car at a T in the road.  As we got out we thought we saw a UFO coming from the west; a well-lit UFO.  Turns out it was not a UFO but  a tractor pulling a manure spreader.  As we stood there in the cold trying to listen for owls, the tractor pulled the manure spreader and proceeded to spread in the field the rich, ripe manure.  Talk about poor timing!  What are the chances the farmer chooses the one night we're in this neighborhood and the exact time of night of our arrival on the owl route?  Not only was the noise of the tractor spreading this juicy manure too loud for us to hear the owls, the smell of methane and ammonia was too much to take.  I'm surprised we held out for almost the entire 5 minutes.  I imagine the farmer eating dinner earlier tonight and planning to spread manure in the dark on cold Friday night.  Why? We didn't hear any owls at the two stops in the town of Pierz.  In fact the only birds we heard were geese and a lone mallard.  It was a quiet night for birds.  As time went on the wind got stronger. So we were skunked on the owls this year on our owl route. Maybe it was too cold or too windy.  Or maybe the owls ran out of things to say.  Lack of owls calling is just as important as evidence of owls calling or at least that is what we were told.  Earlier in the evening someone said they went to Jackson.  Well, that is all it took for me to get a new ear wig. I know Johnny Cash sang it but didn't Sonny and Cher also sing that song?  We had some dispute about the lyrics.  Was it hotter than a Brussels sprout? That doesn't make sense.  Hotter than a  Texas drought?  That does make sense but was it right?  Turns out is hotter than a pepper sprout.  Seriously?  I was told not to quit my day job. #sniffle #rockstardreamsdashed