The 123rd Christmas Bird Count started off with an unusual and fascinating twist. While doing my area on the Northampton, Massachusetts CBC with my field partner Mary Lou, even as we got out of our cars at the parking lot, we could hear a major crow ruckus—American Crows, first bird of the day—somewhere nearby. It seemed a bit more intense than the usual crow family conversations, but it was somewhat distant, and we figured it would stop shortly. It did not. As we began our route, the cawing got louder and even more intense, and shortly we could see six crows across a field gathered around a white pine at the edge of the forest. The crows were repeatedly diving at a broken off vertical pine branch, a snag, and we realized there might be an owl, perhaps a screech-owl or saw-whet, in a hole on the other side of the dead stump. Try as we might, we couldn’t find the cavity. But after a couple of minutes, much to our surprise, the snag turned its head around and revealed to us it...