Saw-whet Owl
The Saw-whet owl is one of the smallest owls in the world, only about as tall as a standard piece of copy paper is wide, weighing only 2-4 ounces. Like other birds of prey, they hunt, snatching mice and other small mammals, and sometimes birds and frogs, with their talons. You probably won’t see these nocturnal birds, but you might hear them — one of their many calls sounds like a saw blade being sharpened. Saw-whets are common in coniferous forests across our region, but scientists predict their populations will diminish as the climate warms.
There are Saw-whet banding stations in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts participating in Project Owlnet, an international research initiative. Rocky, a Saw-whet accidentally transported from upstate New York to Manhattan in the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in 2020, brought the breed some fame, and they are also mentioned in a Grateful Dead lyric in the song “Unbroken Chain.”
What do you love about this particular creature?
What do they reveal to you about God and our faith?
Last Christmas I got my family a Saw-whet adoption certificate from the Harris Center for Conservation, the only New Hampshire site participating in the banding project studying this tiny creature. I keep a picture of a Saw-whet posted in the kitchen to remind us that our lives are connected to those of owls and other creatures.
For me, these birds’ small size and unique, varied calls are reminders of the complexity and diversity of creation. They also remind me of Jesus’s words in the Gospel of John, blessing those who believe even though they haven’t seen. There are so many beings in creation we don’t see or fully understand, but we can still believe in their importance in their ecosystems and the world.
And we can honor their existence by working and praying for a more sustainable, just world for all our kin in God’s beloved creation.
Author - Deb Baker
Deb Baker is a poet whose day job is in a hospital. She lives in New Hampshire, and enjoys looking out into the dark and wondering what creatures are waking up as she is going to sleep.
God of Word and Light, you have ordained and constituted in a wonderful order the ministries of all creatures above and below. Mercifully grant that, as the disciples were granted to see Christ on earth, our eyes would be opened to the spiritual reality all around us today; through Jesus the Wisdom of Creation, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Creation Collect for St Michael and All Angels from Season of Creation, A Celebration Guide for Episcopal Parishes