birdsoup

BVD
For several months there have been reports of a Barn Owl being seen at Big John’s Pond in Jamaica Bay. A owl nesting box is strategically located about 40 feet in front of a viewing blind. The nesting box is big, about 2ft. 3ft. x 2 ft. with a 6’ diameter entrance hole. Reports said the owl mostly stayed inside the box but occasionally it would look out the hole.

I’ve never seen a Barn Owl in the wild before, so on my bird walk we definitely had to look for it. Locating the nesting box was easy. We focused a couple of spotting scopes on the box sure enough I saw a bird staring out of the hole. Barn Owls are pale colored with flat, heart-shaped, almost human looking faces. In the dark they appear ghost-like. That is what I saw in the box. I think.

This would be a “life bird” for me. So I wanted to be certain. I asked myself the key question “if somebody didn’t tell me it was a Barn Owl, could I definitely identify it myself just based on the look I had. As much as I wanted to believe, I just couldn’t.

So I had to place this sighting in the category labeled BVD. No, it has nothing to do with men’s underwear. BVD stands for Better View Desired. I need a better view so I can positively ID it on my own.

I still think about it, and I can almost convince myself that it was a Barn Owl. And actually it probably was. But couldn’t be sure.

Maybe, next time.