Mad Cows and Wide-Eyed Owls

It's called serendipity

Life is often filled with happy coincidences and 'fortunate accidents' that can profoundly or comically bless our lives. I experienced one of these moments last week while taking pictures of burrowing owls in the desert south of Boise, Idaho. It was a serendipitous event – one of many that I have experienced during my life.

Serendipity is an interesting word that means the occurrence of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. In other words, it refers to something fun or interesting that happens unexpectedly, and without actually looking for it.

For example, if you're searching for one thing but unexpectedly discover something much more valuable or enjoyable, that's serendipity.

Examples of serendipity in science include the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming. This happened by accident when he noticed mold killing bacteria in a petri dish.

The discovery of X-rays by Wilhelm Roentgen in 1895 happened while he was experimenting with streams of electrons and noticed a fluorescent glow coming from a nearby screen. He realized that he had discovered a new type of ray which he called “x-ray” because they were mysterious.

In business, the invention of Velcro by George de Mestral in 1941 came about when he observed burrs clinging to clothes and his dog's fur. When he examined these under a microscope, he observed tiny hooks that latched onto the loops of fabric and fur, and he was able to replicate it for practical use.

Writers and artists often experience serendipity when a sudden, unexpected idea leads to the creation of a great work.

In my own life, happy coincidences occur so often that my family and friends refer to me as Walter Mitty. In the Ben Stiller movie version of Mitty, although he appears to be a simple-minded victim of a vivid imagination, amazing things actually happen to him. I am perfectly happy being described as a simple-minded soul with a penchant for adventure.

Although some people believe that I enjoy more than my fair share of serendipitous experiences, I like to think of it as actively looking for and recognizing connections. The sudden discovery of an unexpected connection is a joy, a blessing, and a tender mercy from heaven – sort of a spiritual hug in many instances.

In the case of the owls and cows, my serendipitous experience was neither profound nor important in the world of nature photography. It was simply comical to me (and a few others who share my rather weird sense of humor).

Some Background

I go to the desert in the spring to look for one of my favorite birds, the burrowing owl, which is a diminutive creature that makes its den in underground holes typically excavated by badgers, marmots, and ground squirrels. The desert here is part of the 485,000-acre Birds of Prey National Conservation Area, where more than 700 pairs of raptors nest each spring along 81 miles of the Snake River Canyon. It is a wonderful place to see a variety of wildlife, including burrowing owls which migrate to Idaho from the southwestern United States and Mexico in March.

Several years ago, my nephews and I found several dens with owlets, and this provided a great deal of entertainment as we watched parents go to and fro gathering food for the little darlings while another vigilantly stood guard atop a small hill and scanned the sky for predators.

Upon hatching, owlets hang out in underground bedrooms as they grow in size and plumage. Once they are brave enough to emerge, they do so slowly, at first showing only the top of downy heads that bob up and down like whack-a-moles at the arcade. As they gradually venture out, they join their parents on the dirt patio and continue to bob their heads. This comical bobbing of heads is the result of owls having fixed eyes that don’t move in their sockets. The bobbing and weaving aids in depth perception, pinpointing the location of predator and prey, and as a sign of curiosity, especially when weird-looking two-legged creatures are laying in the dirt under a nearby sagebrush attracting ticks.

While we were watching the owl family pictured above, one of the parents flew in with a very large beetle and dropped it into the hole. Two days later, an adult landed on the patio carrying a very large bull snake, which it handed off to the other, who then carried it down the ramp to anxious snake-eating children.

This spring, I’ve spent several evenings in the desert looking for owls. Although the landscape can appear bleak at times, it transforms into something magical during certain parts of the day and under stormy weather conditions. There is also beauty in the details - a long-billed curlew standing guard atop a massive pile of tumbleweeds, a yellow-bellied marmot soaking up the sun on a bed of lava rocks, raptors soaring overhead, and occasionally, the ever-watchful eyes of tiny burrowing owls perched on mounds of dirt, nearby rocks, or fenceposts.

It was while shooting one of these creatures that I experienced my latest, but somewhat comical serendipitous experience. I was on the ground trying to get an owl silhouetted in the distance sunset. This was physically difficult and required a great deal of care to do so without annoying the owl.

At one point, my decision to switch to video alerted me to a steady banging noise in the background. Turning towards the sound, I realized that I had wandered down the road, a fence and owl on one side and a dairy farm on the other, where a large audience of Jersey cows were straining for a front row seat to this spectacle along metal gates. Based upon the lack of quality entertainment available to most cows, their curiosity did not surprise me, however I found the facial expressions to be hilarious. The entire herd seemed to be chewing wads of something sticky, like giant taffy. While doing this, their tongues protruded in weird ways -- somewhat like giraffes being fed carrots at the zoo by anxious children certain they are about to lose an appendage. In addition to these exaggerated mastications, the cows were curiously licking everything in sight, especially the bars of the fence. This was so comical that I turned away from the owl long enough to snap a few cow shots before returning to my owl sunset pictures.

It was only later, when I downloaded a hundred pictures onto my computer, that I realized I had captured some “cow art” which is apparently a big thing judging by the home décor section of Scheels Sporting Goods and other fine art galleries across America. A recent Scheels grand opening, as well as a quick computer search, revealed a whole universe of cow art scattered across the internet – from Wayfair to Etsy to Walmart. An Amazon.com search produced 4,000 products, and a search on Shutterstock revealed a staggering 138,174 “cow art” photos, vectors and illustrations as well as another 2,269 “cow art videos.” Who knew?

So, while my owl pictures may never make their way into a fine art galleries in a beloved sporting goods stores, perhaps limited edition prints of “Mad Cow Support Group” will.

I am certainly not suggesting that getting a weird cow picture is the type of serendipitous event that deserves mention in the Serendipity Hall of Fame, but it’s all I got. As Dr. Suess once wisely said:

Today was good.

Today was fun.

Tomorrow is another one.

GETTING THE SHOT

Among all types of photography, wildlife is my favorite subject, but it isn’t easy. In addition to gaining a solid understanding of photographic principles, it requires development of particular skills as well as going to target rich environments . . .