Two Upcoming Talks on the Owls

December 17, 2010

The owls continue to amaze with even more mating, house hunting and hunting for prey. Despite the freezing temperatures, I watched them tonight and again they mated! This was the ninth time I have observed them mating this season!

While I'm busy as always observing and documenting the owls and their behavior, I am also preparing for two talks I am giving on these amazing animals. The first one is tomorrow Friday, December 17 for members of St. Louis OASIS, "a national education organization dedicated to enriching the lives of adults age 50 and older through lifelong and service." This will be the second time I have given a talk about the owls, both in general and for St. Louis OASIS. Members of this fine organization serve as volunteers at The St. Louis BioBlitz (among many other events) and I met some of these volunteers when I led an owl prowl for the 2006 St. Louis Bioblitz, the first of three I've led for this superb event. The volunteers put some of the staff of OASIS St. Louis in touch with me. The staff graciously invited me to give a talk to the organization's membership as part of a series of classes held at and about Forest Park. I gave this talk in October 2007 and it went well. At that point, I had been watching the owls for just under two years and it was a challenge to condense all my work into an hour. Now after over more than four-and-a-half years of work with the owls, it will be even more challenging to be informative AND concise. It is a good challenge to undertake and I am looking forward heartily to this talk. Registration for the series of classes of which this talk is full but another talk is coming up in the near future.

At this year's St. Louis Bioblitz in September, I met Karen Meyer who is an at-large member of the board of The St. Louis Audubon Society who handles their membership matters. We only had a few moments to talk but I managed to peak her interest and slip her one of the packets of owl photos and information I gave out to the folks going on my owl prowls. I was pleased to get a phone call later in the fall asking me if I would like to give a talk to the Society on the owls and my work with them. I heartily accepted the offer and the date, time and place are all set. The talk will be on Tuesday, January 18 at 7:00pm at the Dennis & Judith Jones Visitor Center in Forest Park. The talk is free and open to the public and I invite and encourage one and all to attend! It is a great honor to be asked by the Society to speak to their members and the general public. Here is a listing of the talk in the current issue of the Society's newsletter.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you in January!