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| 4/4/2008 1:19:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | At Home in the Woods: International Festival of Owls
By Nancy Overcott
On Saturday morning March 1, as I arrived at the Houston High School, I saw my beloved niece Abby and her paternal grandma Nancy picking their way across icy spots in the parking lot. The three of us were looking forward to a day at the International Festival of Owls, which Abby and I have attended together for six years in a row, ever since she was three years old.
The festival began as a way to celebrate Alice's hatch day. Alice, a teaching great horned owl who is unable to survive in the wild due to a damaged wing, lives with Karla Kinstler, director of the Houston Nature Center. She is the star of the nature center and the presentations that Karla gives around the country every year.
Our first activity this year was pellet dissection, a new event for us and one that Abby had specifically requested. Owls usually swallow their prey whole and after the undigestable bones, teeth, fur and feathers are compressed in their gizzards, the birds cough the pellets up and spit them out. As we picked our pellets apart, we discovered skulls, jaws, ribs and vertebrae of field mice, moles and pocket gophers.
During this activity, I had a chance to ask Karla about the banquet the evening before, which I was unable to attend. The keynote speaker was Dr. C. Stuart Houston, a Canadian physician with a passion for birds, who has published almost 600 natural history articles. Following his presentation were the World Owl Hall of Fame Awards. Mozart, a Eurasian eagle owl won the Lady Gray'l Award for a lifetime of helping to educate people about owls. The Champion of Owls Award winner was Dr. Houston, the keynote speaker. In addition, four Special Service Awards were announced.
Following our pellet dissections, Nancy, Abby and I went to the gym where Abby made an origami owl, had her face painted as a saw-whet owl and looked through all the items for sale before choosing a walking stick with owls carved on it for the souvenir I had promised her.
The three of us especially enjoyed a new event this year, the "Live Foreign Owl Program" by the World Bird Sanctuary. The first foreign birds we saw were a tawny owl, similar to our barred owl and a Eurasian eagle owl, the largest owl in the world. Both birds occur in Europe, Asia and Africa. We also saw a spectacle owl from tropical America and a European barn owl, who repeatedly flew over our heads. At photo opportunities, my niece hurried to take a picture of each bird and I realized how the shyness she showed at the first festival has diminished over the years.
After lunch, we visited with Hooston, the human-size owl mascot of the nature center and then went to the "Live Native Owl Program" by the Raptor Education Group. This group has been at all six festivals and the birds we saw were becoming like old friends--Little Bit, the tiny saw-whet owl; Malcolm, the barred owl; two little screech owls; a barn owl; and new this year, Archimedes, a great horned owl, who shared the spotlight with Alice.
Later, we attended a party for Alice where we sang "Happy Hatch-day to You" and ate owl cake. Our final activity was the "Kids Owl Calling Contest." Abby thought she would just watch and not participate, then suddenly overcoming her shyness she was sitting with the other kids awaiting her turn.
Although we missed the Saturday evening owl prowls and the Sunday activities, which included a birding bus trip and photography sessions, we were happy with our day and are already looking forward to next year's festival, which will take place March 6-8.
This year the festival drew at least 500 people with four foreign countries represented: Canada, Holland, Jamaica and Ethiopia. Considering the continuing success of this event, the Houston Nature Center and the Global Owl Project are working to create a North American Owl Center with Houston as its home. Karla Kinstler, with her enthusiasm, knowledge about these birds and experience in giving presentations with Alice is just the person to make such an endeavor a success.
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