Winging It
An owl call filled my ears as I rounded the corner to the office. I glanced to the corner of the room where Emma was sitting with her hands cupped.
“How’d you do that? Do it again!” I exclaimed.
Another low pitch pieced the air and she pulled her mouth away from her hands.
“You form a c-shape with each hand and place your top lips above the knuckles on your thumb with your bottom lips below. Make sure the opening is on the narrower side and you’re blowing more into your knuckles than the opening. You should have no air leaking out from your cupped hands.”
I cupped my hands and placed my lips on my thumbs and blew. It was not quite the right shape. With furrowed brows I looked at Emma with doubt as I pulled my hands away. Determined, I brought my hands up to my face again and blew. After several more failed attempts I was ready to give up.
“Okay one more time and then I’m going to stop.”
I took a deep breath and blew. The silence was broken, I grinned with a sparkle in my eyes as I turned my head towards Emma with a matching expression across her face. Shortly after, we made our way to the hiking trail for Emma’s adventure ecology program.
When we pulled into the parking lot, two friendly faces appeared out of a car. Their excitement for the owl hike matched ours as we chatted. While waiting for the rest of the group to come, Emma and I sat in the truck with cupped hands. Emma sat with a hunched back and an intense stare as she produced owl calls.
“The people waiting in their cars next to us are probably thinking, wow they must be really cold.” Emma said with a smirk.
“Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?” Emma’s body perked up with each word of the owl call.
We both burst into laughter. As we made our way through the different calls attempting to mimic them we got to the Eastern Screech Owl. It’s described as sounding like a horse on helium. Our heads tilted slightly as we both tried this call and immediately grinned as to how ridiculous we sounded
“I hope they can hear us.” Emma said with an almost straight face.
After everyone had trickled in, Emma explained to the group four different owl calls and played a recording of each. One of which sounded like a truck backing up. When there was a few moments of silence before we started, our ears met with the sound of Barred Owl. The group trekked along with a blossoming excitement of hearing more owls, or so the expectation of.
As we meandered through the winding trees, snowflakes fell on our hats and shoulders. The sky gradually deepened to an orange creamsicle hue and our crunching steps echoed across the trunks of the trees. Once we had reached a clearing, Emma coaxed the entire group into making owl calls. The silence around us was broken by our whos, neighs, and beeps. Emma and I bit our tongues to hold back laughter as It was a comical scene to witness.
Darkness grew as we gradually reached the hidden lake. All headlamps were turned off, lips were sealed, as we tried to match the stillness around us. A gust of wind whipped across my face as a Barred Owl call came from Emma’s phone. Emma played alternating owl calls from her phone in the hope of us hearing another one. Our expectations of hearing owl calls gradually diminished throughout the hike. Even though we only heard an owl at the beginning, there is a blissfulness about uniting with local communities in nature. Supporting educational programs is important to spread awareness for conservation efforts with AmeriCorps. Without educational programs like Emma’s, we wouldn’t have the community support to make a meaningful impact.
Annalicea is an Americorps member serving as a Water Quality Assistant with SLA. She is originally from Clifton Park, NY and received her Associate’s in Environmental Science at Hudson Valley Community College. She then transferred to University of New Hampshire where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology. In her free time you can find her outside or picking up a new hobby. Learn more about Annalicea here.