Welcome to Econ Talk, Conversations for the Curious, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.

I'm your host Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem and Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Go to Econ Talk. in to today's conversation. You'll also find our archives with every episode we've done

going back to 2006. Our email address is mail at econ talk.org we'd love to hear from you. Today is August 29, 2024,

and my guest is award-winning science writer and author Jennifer Ackerman.

Her latest book, and the topic of today's conversation,

is, what an owl knows the new science of the world's most

enigmatic birds.

Jennifer, welcome to Econ Talk.

Thank you so much.

It's a delight to be here.

What a fun book to write.

Tell us about...

And to read, by the way way tell us about the process of how you came to spend the time you did with

owls and and what it was like.

Yes so my first close encounter with an owl was some years ago when my children were little, we put an owl box on the maple tree behind our house.

And, you know, it was very close. on the maple tree behind our house.

And, you know, it was very close, easy to see from our kitchen window.

Nothing roosted there for quite some time.

And then finally, an Eastern screech owl showed up and this little owl would roost in the box with just its head showing, its little round head.

And the girls were just fascinated. They were about seven and nine at the time. And I would try to see this owl come and go, but it was so stealthy. I never saw it, either enter the box or leave it.

But often in the morning, my girls would come down for breakfast. And out of the hole in this in this box would be

hanging say the wing of a blue jay or you know the tail of a mockingbird and one time it was it was a whole morning dove and then

...