BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 31, 2025
Every Halloween, I ponder which Maine birds might be considered eerie. Crows and ravens are associated with death and mayhem. Double-crested cormorants adopt the “Dracula pose” when standing on seaside cliffs to dry their wings. Vultures are, well, vultures. Inevitably, owls emerge as number one. Screech owls screech. Great horned owls will attack humans who get too near their nest. Often I’ve felt like I was being watched by barred owls, and it turned out to be true. Northern saw-whet owls are tiny and their toot-toot-toot mating calls aren’t particularly alarming. Barn owls are ghostly white in the darkness. Owls face many environmental threats. The old-growth habitat that spotted owls need has been reduced by timber harvesting. Barred owls are being culled to rescue spotted owls from extinction. The widespread use of second-generation rodenticides are working their way into the food chain. ~ Bob Duchesne