Burrowing Owl 2 (graphics and text by A. Leon Miler)

Burrowing Owl

“‘Tis the middle of night by the castle clock,

And the owls have awakened the crowing cock;

Tu—whit! Tu—whoo!

And hark, again! the crowing cock,

How drowsily it crew.

Sir Leoline, the Baron rich,

Hath a toothless mastiff bitch;

From her kennel beneath the rock

She maketh answer to the clock,

Four for the quarters, and twelve for the hour;

Ever and aye, by shine and shower,

Sixteen short howls, not over loud;

Some say, she sees my lady’s shroud.”

(From Christabel by Coleridge)

Athene cunicularia, other wise known as borrowing owls.  There was a burrowing owl barrio in a dirt bank beneath the creosote in the desert behind where Grandma Mimi lived.  They come out in the daytime, and appear to be a gregarious lot.  Their talk is more of a “whoo whoo” than a “tu-whit! tu-whoo!”