open space DANCING WITH THE STARS “Oh, that’s a good sign,” Mike said, pointing to a splash of white son over lichen-colored rock and fallen trees tangled with feces on rock. “Neat,” I said, and then, “Oh!” Right behind him, 20 feet away, dark grapevine. Mike carried a box of white laboratory mice, the protocol being to offer up to four mice, one at a time, to any round eyes in a disk-shaped face were staring down at us, the expression Mexican spotted owl we happened to see in this narrow singularly judgmental, the short curved beak a comic afterthought. White canyon in the Gila National Forest of southwestern New and brown breast feathers ruffled in a mottled, mesmerizing pattern, and, Mexico. If that owl were to swoop down, grab the mouse, and eat it on mesmerized, I stared back, waiting for the bird to fly away. Soon—like some incompetent pathe spot, it probably did not have hungry parazzo—I was fumbling for my camnestlings nearby. But if the owl were to era. “These birds are so fearless,” Mike swoop down, grab the mouse, and take stage-whispered. “I’ve never worked her prey away—and if we were to track with a species that cares so little about the flap of those chestnut-colored wings the human presence.” In the next two through ponderosa pine, following that hours, we would watch the female suddenly flying mouse—then we might swoop down and take two of the live discover a nest of piteously ugly and white mice that Mike’s son had placed relatively rare Mexican spotted owlets on top of a jutting tree branch. The mice (Strix occidentalis lucida). seemed puzzled but not alarmed to be It all sounded improbable to me. But out of the box, whiskers moving, sniffMike is a gifted naturalist, and the U.S. ing at this brave new world. (Yes, I had government was paying him to camp some feelings for the mice, which I supout, hoot between dusk and dawn, pressed.) Directly under the female owl, wait for answering hoots, and confirm I watched as she swallowed whole her the location of any breeding pairs of first offering, the gulp and throat moveMexican spotted owls. One of those ment both casual and awkward. The pairs frequented this canyon, where male joined us within a half hour and Douglas fir grew along the rocky botalso swooped down for two of the mice. tom; where the sky had darkened now Giddy with this unexpected gift, I to a cobalt river above our heads; and felt as if I’d met my favorite environwhere the scale was intimate, nothing mental celebrity. It was as though this grand, the original feng shui. couple had welcomed us into their livWith a wingspan of about 45 inches, “These birds are so fearless,” ing room, hospitable hosts eating our this medium-size owl is one of three Mike stage-whispered. “I’ve never plate of canapés, swiveling their heads, subspecies of spotted owl, each preworked with a species that cares so blinking their eyes. Hello, hello? ferring to nest in healthy, old-growth Then the female flew with her secforests. Listed as threatened under the little about the human presence.” ond mouse down the canyon to a crevEndangered Species Act in 1993, the Mexican spotted owl quickly became a scapegoat in the Southwest iced cliff face, and suddenly we were scrambling after her, running back for an unsustainable logging industry already in decline, much like the way we had come. Full stop! Panting! We craned our necks and the Northern spotted owl in the Pacific Northwest. The controversy hoped this rocky crevice, 30 feet up, sheltered her nest. Alternately, there inspired bumper stickers: i like spotted owls—fried. Or, save a it might simply be a cache—a storage area for white laboratory mice. Since we couldn’t see or hear young birds, Mike suspected the latter. logger—kill a spotted owl. Under new federal regulations, logging Meanwhile, the cobalt river above our heads had become a night practices changed, and eventually the anti-owl sentiment was replaced by other rural concerns. But the spotted owls are still threatened by full of stars. The 9-year-old did a little dance, the beam of his flashlight climate change in the form of extended drought and increased wildfire, illuminating the path home. as well as by predation by other owls. In the United States, an estimated 2,000 Mexican spotted owls remain (there are far fewer in Mexico). Sharman Apt Russell is a contributing editor to OnEarth. followed my friend Mike and his 9-year-old
6 4 onearth
winter 2013/2014
illustration by keith negley
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b y shar m an a p t r u sse l l