More about the partial amelanistic Great Gray Owl

Here is another photo of this bird thanks to Cheryl Farmer again. In this photo you can see there are patches of feathers lacking melanin as well as normally pigmented feather patches. The photo in the previous post shows the face of the owl and you can see the bill and eyes appear pale as well. I have followed the terminology proposed by Jeff Davis in the Sept/Oct 2007 Birding magazine to describe this plumage because I agree that it does a much better job than some of the other terms previously used (ie. partial albinism).
A recent post to the Montana Outdoor Birding Group by Chad Adams provided a link to an article on albinism in Great Gray Owls. In this article the authors Pentti Alaja and Heimo Mikkola describe a number of Great Grays with abnormal pigments in Yellowstone National Park and in nearby Idaho. Bozeman is not that far (as the owl flies) from these observations.

This is a striking bird and apparently many birders went to find it today. Unfortunately some of them trespassed into private property to "get a better look" at this bird and then the neighbor who originally reported the bird to Cheryl was verbally abused by some of the birders when she told them they were trespassing. The original observer unfortunately now regrets telling anyone about the owl and Cheryl, who was very careful not to disturb this bird when she took these photos, is rightly upset that she led to these transgressions by alerting the general birding public to the location of the owl. This is a shame and I guess I expected better of my fellow birders there (I was formerly the president of the Sacajawea Audubon Society in Bozeman). The result will probably be that observers who care about the birds they see will not report interesting birds they see to protect the birds and avoid rude and inconsiderate behavior. We all lose then.


References:

Alaja, P. and H. Mikkola. 1997. Albinism in the Great Gray Owl (Strix nebulosa) and Other Owls in Biology and Conservation of Owls of the Northern Hemisphere, Second International Symposium. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report NC-190. http://www.ncrs.fs.fed.us/epubs/owl/


Davis, J. N. 2007. Color Abnormalities in Birds: A Proposed Nomenclature for Birders. Birding 39(5)36-46

Spectacular Great Gray Owl

This owl was reported by Mike Lesnik near Bozeman, MT about a month ago but he only got a brief look at it and could not figure out what it was. Cheryl Farmer got this photo of the bird a couple of days ago. Wow.

Another Trip Around the Sun - Sage-Grouse Time Again

As February grinds to a close and management plans and meetings seem to drag on forever, I begin to really look forward to the upcoming field season. Another month or so and I will finally have a good excuse to get out of the office and begin monitoring Greater Sage-Grouse leks.

Monitoring sage-grouse means some really early mornings and long days but it is such great work to do. Watching these birds displaying never gets old and each morning is an adventure filled with sightings of lots of other animals. I will also be collecting feathers at each of the leks for continued genetic analysis which I hope to report more on here shortly. I will also get out at least one morning to trap birds for part of an ongoing research project on a population of grouse living along the US and Canada border between Saskatchewan and Montana. Lots of good stuff will be coming out of this research and I hope to be able to tell you more about this pretty soon too.

Although the management plan work will take me out of as much monitoring as I have been able to do in the past and my assistant Matt will get to do most of this work, each morning I get out will be that much more special when contrasted with the drudgery of planning and computer screens.

Humpbacks

I posted about this Humpback whale about a year ago but I recently was working through photos and wanted to share this series of breaching whale shots.

Richie Skane

Before I left for Antarctica last November I made a post about my late friend Richie Skane. In that post I described how a group of people who knew and loved Richie had petitioned to name a geographic feature at Cape Monaco after Richie and that there was now a Skane Nunatak on Cape Monaco. I had hoped to visit that area on my trip to get my own photos of Skane Nunatak and pay my respects to an old friend. Although we were in the vicinity I was unable to see the nunatak.

Then in January I received the following letter from Richie's brother in response to my post.

Dear John,

I don't know whether you want to call it fate or divine intervention, but sometimes things happen and we don't have a logical explanation for it.There is a picture of Richie on my desk and he looks out smiling everyday, the look is much like you describe on your website. But there was one particular day, three days before Christmas that the smile was different. It was if Richie were saying that there was something I hadn't done and for some reason I googled Richie's name, I don't know why, it just happened.

Maybe it was the quick blurb on googling yourself on a news station here in Boston, or just maybe it was Richie being Richie. Whatever the reason as I hit the enter key I was looking at Richie's name on the screen. I opened the first website and it was John Carlson's Prairie Ice site. At a quick glance I looked at John's picture and I thought it didn't look like Richie. It wasn't Richie, huh so there is another Richie Skane. Then I looked to the right and saw Richie's name and began to read the paragraph. The words started to jump out: carpenter's helper, Colorado, fun, fair person. It was Richie! Your description of Richie is excellent; you don't need a picture to really see him. Continuing the article there it was- the naming of a feature in Antarctica after Richie. I remembered at his service a number of people from the ice were speaking about Richie and the people on the ice that loved and respected him, the people who would miss him, and the people who felt they had lost family. I remember someone stating that they were going to try to get the USGS to name a feature after him. We all realized what an honor this was, but then as always time moves ever forward.

Time moves forward at a seemingly ever-changing pace, sometimes slowly and other times like a lightening bolt. We can get lost in the things that were and the things that are, dealing with love, loss and daily routine differently. Every now and then my sisters or I would check to see if anything had happened. Eventually as the months and years passed, our thoughts were of Richie and our memories of Richie and we forgot about the feature that might be named for him. I think we all thought that someone would contact us. But then we failed to realize that this is not about us. It is about Richie, his love of the ice and for all of those he worked with. It is about your relationships with Richie, that special bond developed on the ice. You were and all are all truly brothers and sisters in arms.

Richie let us know that it was time to check again, so that we would know about the feature named for him, so we could thank you. Thank you for all of your efforts, for the hard work and dedication you put into the Skane Nunatak. Its ironic that this was the first Christmas the whole family has been together to celebrate the holidays since Richie's death. Ironic that your website would find its way into our lives and eventually into our hearts. Copies of the information and your efforts were wrapped as gifts for my sisters and my father and addressed to them from Richie and from you guys. I can't tell you how grateful we are to you all for the great Christmas surprise we all received under the tree.

You mentioned Richie's eyes and it is true that eyes can tell a great deal about people. The story told in Richie's father's eyes when he read the information and saw the picture is something I hope you can see, or imagine. He has the picture and description of the Skane Nunatak hanging on his wall next to Richie's picture.

My family thanks you for the honor, the love and the respect you have shown Richie. The naming of a nunatak after him is so very special. I know he is smiling that smile as he watches from his summit. Reading Glenn Grant's blog is a humbling experience, to think that one person can be that much a part of people's lives. To think of how much he meant to all of you. To see him again on the ice and around the United States carried in the hearts of so many. I have some pictures of Richie that you might enjoy; one in particular shows him on the ice with some people starring out at the world around him. It is almost as if he were sitting up on his nunatak staring out at all of us. There is another picture that a friend took of Richie at the family cottage, he has that look on his face, that smile and those eyes. The eyes that directed us to the website and to his friends, who still see him on the ice. Thank you.

Sincerely, George Skane

Although I was not in on the effort to name a geographic feature for Richie (I found out about it after the petition had been submitted to USGS), I am glad that I was able to let his family know about it. The passage where George described how my blog had let to Christmas gifts for his family and in particular Richie's father (the italics are mine) made the creation of this blog worthwhile even for just that one post. Even though George said that my description of Richie didn't need any photos here are few that George sent me so you can see the man I wrote about.

Ships that pass in the ice.

While looking through blogs listed in the Nature Blog Network I found this interesting post from Laura (scroll down to the last photo) describing her November 2007 trip to Antarctica.

The photo she posted is of the National Geographic Endeavour, the ship I was on in November. I remember passing them in the ice and here is a photo of her ship from my view. For the record, we did wave and I would have to argue her claim that her ship was the better ship.

non illegitimi carborundum est

What can I say. It's been one of those weeks and this mock Latin phrase is my motto for today.