Book Review: Twelve Owls

Twelve Owls, by Laura Erickson, illustrations by Betsy Bowen. Univ. of Minnesota Press, 67 pp. $19.95

Reviewed by Clay Christensen
December 18, 2011

This book is a high quality production, printed in landscape format on high gloss paper, which allows Betsy Bowen’s paintings and sketches of owls to “pop.”

Each chapter covers one of the twelve owl species we might see here in Minnesota, starting with the smallest, the Saw-whet Owl, concluding with the Great Gray Owl, introduced by a life-sized painting of the owl. As the owls get bigger, the paintings focus on the head and shoulders.

For an owl, a silent approach is essential for capturing prey. In most cases, the owl locates prey by sound. As Laura points out, in flight, an owl’s ears are right next to their wings. Noisy wing beats would interfere with its hearing. Silence in flight is improved by stiff combs on the flight feathers that break up the airflow over the wing.

Owls’ hearing is estimated to be ten times more sensitive than human hearing. Great Gray Owls can hear the sound of a rodent moving beneath eighteen inches of snow!

We birders often listen for crows mobbing an owl. Laura offers a new insight for that mobbing: The theory that by driving away the owl, it won’t see where the crows are going to roost for the night. The night is a dangerous time for crows if an owl is around. An owl can swoop through sleeping crows, silently picking off one before its neighbors know what happened.

The Burrowing Owl is the only owl listed as endangered by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. It uses old prairie dog burrows for its home. It collects mammal scat to adorn the entrance to its home to attract the dung beetles it feeds to its young, and keep predators away (whew!).

Of the twelve species in the book, the most common owl in Minnesota, and in North America, is the Great-Horned Owl. I’ve read elsewhere that you’re never more than five miles away from a Great-Horned Owl anywhere in North America. The male brings the female mice and rabbits while she’s brooding her eggs and chicks. And as the weather warms, he brings her more pungent gifts. In Laura’s words, “He says it with skunks.”

Many Snowy Owls have been coming south into Minnesota this winter. Laura says it’s not always caused by a crash of the lemming population in Canada. It may be that a higher lemming population led to increased nesting success and now there are more owls than the food supply or hunting territories can support. A typical clutch is three to five eggs, but can go as high as seven to eleven. Young males are the ones most frequently forced to wander.

The book ends with the essay on the Great Gray Owl. While it weighs less than the Snowy or Great-Horned Owls, it is longer in length, one of the longest in the world. Laura says it’s “feathers and spirit and not much more.”

“Twelve Owls” is meant for people who want to know more about owls in Minnesota, from beginners to the more advanced bird watcher.

A longer version of this book review appeared on the Birdman blog at www.parkbugle.org. Used with permission of the Park Bugle.