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Parkway Owling



Wallace Mann, Tony Bishop, W.D. Spearman and I planned a trip to Devil's Courthouse
to try owling, which none of us had ever done.

We drove up today from Greenville, SC. We accessed the Blue Ridge Parkway from US 276
north of Brevard, turned left toward Devil's Courthouse and, as luck would have it,
drove right up to a closed gate!

Well, after casting a few aspersions towards some unnamed gatekeeper, we decided to
head the other way towards Asheville. We stopped at the picnic area on the left just
past the Pisgah Inn.

On our very first attempt, TWO SAW-WHET  OWLS answered a taped call. You talk about
some surprised birders, we were giggling like little kids. Two owls on our first try.
Our luck had suddenly changed!

After regaining our sences, we walked towards the west end of the parking lot where
we heard the closer bird. It was at dusk, but we were able to get a very quick look
at two birds. One flew in close, perched for a second then flew out of sight. Another
flew into the same area, but we were unable to find it.

At one point we had three birds calling. One near the top of the hill at the east end
of the parking lot and the two we saw at the other end.

Life Bird for us all! What a day!

Jeff Catlin
Marietta, SC
jco@viperlink.net
jcatlin@gcbirdclub.org