Stealth mode

Julie Benbassat

One evening, yours truly was sitting on the deck having a beer. Unannounced, a great horned owl, who lives nearby, silently ghosted out of a tree and pounced on a squirrel hiding in the leaf litter below. Upon seizing the prey, she? lifted off effortlessly and flew to an unknown location to enjoy the meal at hand. Stunned at the stealth, slowness of flight and the complete lack of sound exhibited by this amazing creature, this brief glimpse into the wonder of owls will remain with me forever. 

Owls are hard to observe for some of the same reasons we love them. With their inconspicuous presence and almost soundless flight, they point to the value of not standing out in the world but fitting into it.

They wear the look of the land around them to meld into it, a strategy known as crypsis. Masters of camouflage — streaked like grasses; mottled, speckled and striped like tree bark; pale like snow — they baffle the eye of both predators and prey.

A Zen moment comes to mind regarding owls as they seamlessly fit into reality on their own terms, similar to how a Zen Archer becomes the arrow as an act of meditation in action. 

A Japanese archer with targets. Ink on paper, 1878.

In closing ...

Owls are cryptic not just in sight but also in sound. Many species move through the world in secret silence, the better to hear and hunt their prey. Most birds make a lot of noise when they fly. Not owls. A mouse or vole scuttling along the ground never hears what’s coming.

The quiet flight of owls is an act of biomechanical stealth that still challenges science. Only recently have biologists and engineers begun to sort out the details and to use what they’ve learned to design quieter things, among them wind turbines, fans, trains and airplanes.

Silence is golden ... :)