Parkville Nature Journal - The Owl Tree

“Hooo, hoo-hoo, HOOO! HOOO!” It is October, and once again a Great Horned Owl is sitting in the dead “Owl Tree” opposite our house - where he frequently perches from dusk until dawn. Sometimes his hooting wakes us up. This time, although it’s four in the morning, we hurry to the window.

Through a small telescope that Kirk set up in advance, we can see the owl’s feather “horns” fluttering in the wind. “Hooooo, hoo-hoo…” He barely moves until his final “HOOO! HOOO!” when he bows forward twice, as if for added emphasis.

Known for silent flight and sensitive hearing, owls are formidable hunters in the dark. But there is another reason that Our Owl can hunt successfully at night -- and it’s the same reason we were able to accurately position our telescope. Owls have sedentary habits, hunting in the same territory night after night. Familiarity with a favorite perching area - including the height of the branch - can be essential to an owl’s ability to pounce on its prey. Remarkable auditory systems replace the absence of sight, and being a creature of habit allows the owl to see anything out of the ordinary. Not surprisingly then, most Great Horned Owls do not migrate, but maintain permanent territories throughout the year.

This month find a quiet place and listen for Great Horned Owls. If you’re lucky enough to see one, you may have found your very own “Owl Tree. “

The Ultimate Workspace Designer

I am now a beekeeper. With the help of my husband Kirk at the table saw, I assembled my own beehive and helped two friends assemble theirs.

We built Warre hives, designed by Frenchman Abbe Emile Warre (1867-1951.) Warre spent decades studying each existing beehive design. He evaluated which parts of each design were efficient and which were not. He kept a journal of his findings.

More importantly, he kept an open mind about hive design and focused on the well-being of the bees as a means to get the most honey. Warre understood that he was not a bee, he could not direct the bees about the best way to make honey. He could, however, be a honey facilitator by paying attention to the bees' process of making honey and designing a hive for the bees.

Warre also observed something about people: unlike the days of his childhood in France when everyone had hives of their own, ordinary people rarely kept beehives as a means to produce their own honey. "Modern" commercial hives, supposedly designed to heighten production, had become more time-consuming to maintain and less user-friendly. People had stopped owning their own hives.

Warre sought to design a hive that any person could easily maintain, but a design that was the most natural for the honeybees. In designing "The People's Hive" he was going for the win-win.

And so the answer to all Warre's design questions centered around studying the bees themselves: what structure helped the bees to construct their own honeycombs, move around within the hive, reproduce, store more honey, stay warm through Winter and survive into Spring. Unlike mass-produced commercial hives that were based on the needs of the beekeeper, studying the essential needs of the bees was the cornerstone of Warre's beehive design. However, bee-friendly hives also made beekeeping easier and more people-friendly!

Commercial hives need frequent monitoring by the beekeeper. The People's Hive allows bees to work with little or no interruption between Spring and the Fall harvest. Less disruption to honeybees is crucial to productivity because every interruption and disturbance causes honeybees to panic and gorge themselves on their own honey to survive. Undisturbed and trusted as the honey-making experts, bees have no need to stop (and actually reverse) honey production. Minimal-maintenance hives allow beekeepers to focus on other issues - like marketing honey.

As an Artist, I can relate to the effect of my workspace on my ability to Create. Of course, Artists are not bees. I have never gorged on my own artwork (but I have been too distracted to get into a productive, innovative Creative Flow.) I love this workspace design analogy -- and especially the fact that Warre respected honeybees' natural instincts enough to design Beehives around the essential needs of BEES!

In Nature, as in all things, Good Design always accomplishes the win-win.

The Church of Forest Joy® - Our Donkey Altar with Reverent Squirrels

The Church of Forest Joy® now has an ALTAR!

I designed it, Kirk and I made it out of mortar and recycled bottles. It's lit from within.

Why? I needed to give my parents' lawn donkey a place to be revered - whilst containing tasty cold beverages near the firepit...

Our yard is a sanctuary for me, full of Nature and Creative inspiration.
It's nice to have my parents' lawn donkey there, a little reminder of the people who taught me about appreciating the Natural World.