I was going to talk about hooter watching, wasn’t I? Tonight I’d plan to go to the Van Buren State Park for an evening hike to call…owls. The walk usual finds a barn owl or two as well as other types, and on occasion the nature center releases a rehabbed hooter back into the wild.

Unfortunately, I’ll have to postpone hooter watching for another time, since there’s a minor problem: the temperature is expected to get down to 5 degrees tonight with a 15-20 mph wind. Maybe the hooters can deal with frigid weather since they’re blessed with a natural defense of downy feathers against such cold. But this cowboy, despite owning silk ski underwear, sock and glove liners, and enough layers to look more like a penguin than a nature boy, thinks even the lure of watching hooters isn’t enough to spend hours out in -25 wind chill weather.