56 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {due west} HIKING walk on the wild side words by JOHANNA HARLOW • photography by RICK MORRIS bones and the fur so owls have two stomachs,” he explains. “The indigestible bits get transferred to the gizzard where it’s basically compacted into these little balls to be spit back up. It looks like they’re yawning.” Of course, we don’t meet any of these nocturnal raptors during daylight hours at Edgewood, but Rick keeps me entertained with an abundance of owl facts as we hike. Did you know barn owls have a facial disc that funnels sound to their ears? That great horn owls rip apart their prey, while barn owls swallow their meals whole? As we continue, Rick points out clearings where songbirds like to swoop for juicy bugs. A goldencrowned sparrow, black phoebe Rick Morris hefts up his Nikon camera, its hulking 500MM lens nearly the length of his forearm, and scans the treetops. After a moment, we hear the reedy voice speak up again and locate the little fellow. An Anna’s hummingbird, cute as a gumdrop and clinging to a bare twig at the tippytop of an oak, tweedle-eedles merrily away as Rick presses the shutter. Click. Click. Click. On a mission to track down the Bay’s best wildlife hikes, I’m tagging along with nature photographer and bird walk tour guide Rick Morris to explore Edgewood Park and Natural Preserve, a verdant patchwork of oak woodlands, grasslands and chaparral, which many species call home. “I’ll never get tired of hummingbirds,” says Rick as the tiny blur of pink and green zips away. But the bird that truly holds his heart prefers mice to manzanita flowers. After initially guiding more generalized bird tours, Rick discovered a nocturnal niche when a Stanford professor requested a twilight owl tour. Afterwards, Rick posted photos on NextDoor of the great horned owl, screech owl and barn owl he’d located— and soon found himself inundated with over 50 inquiries. How does one track down these silent hunters? These days, Rick’s birding friends and former tour guests inform him of sightings. Although he closely guards his favorite owl hotspots, Rick recommends people keep their eyes peeled for pellets. “They can’t digest the
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