With cold winters and long dark nights comes the opportunity to experience the unique magic of being outdoors in the brightness of a full moon on snow.
On Tuesday, March 26 at 7PM, join Chocorua Lake Conservancy (CLC) for an evening Owl Prowl with USFS Wildlife Biologist Jessie Dubuque, and CLC Stewardship Director Debra Marnich. We’ll take a walk from The Preserve at Chocorua, following their monthly Community Soup Night benefit, listening and calling for owls and experiencing the world of nocturnal animals by the light of a near full moon. Storm date is Wednesday, March 27, 7PM.
As one of nature’s amazing “living mouse traps,” owls play an important role in the fields and forests of this area, even though we may not see or hear them often. Special feathers, eyesight and hearing serve owls well as nighttime hunters. As we walk, we’ll try some experiments that will help demonstrate some of these unique owl adaptations.
Great horned owls and barred owls are some of the earliest nesting birds here in NH, laying eggs during the months of January through March in spite of cold temperatures and snow. Listening for their calls at night is a wonderful way to locate where they may be living in the surrounding forests. A moonlit night affords the possibility to see their shadowy silhouette as well. No guarantees that we will find owls on this walk, but you won’t regret spending time out in the bright winter night.
Meet by 7PM by the barn at The Preserve. Please wear warm layers, bring a flashlight or headlamp, and snowshoes or ice grippers—our path will depend on ground conditions, but you will likely want one or the other—we’ll update you on conditions a couple of days before the event. This event is free to CLC members, by donation to non-members, and all ages are welcome; kids, please bring an adult with you. Space is limited, and we want to be able to let you know if the schedule changes—please register in advance below. Want to learn more about owls before the walk? Scroll down to view naturalist Lynne Flaccus’s CLC presentation “All About New Hampshire Owls.” If you’d like to register for Community Soup Night and enjoy a warm supper with friends and neighbors before the Owl Prowl, visit reservethepreserve.com.
About the Presenter:
CLC Stewardship Director Debra Marnich holds a BS in Zoology and an MS in Forestry. Her major interests and professional focus areas include combining wildlife and forestry practices to manage for both sound silvicultural and optimum wildlife habitat, creating early successional and bird nesting habitat, pollinator habitat creation, promoting small diverse farms local food production/agriculture, promoting land conservation and protection, environmental education, and integrating all resources concerns to create a balanced conservation system.
Banner image: Owls of New Hampshire. Photo: Debra Marnich