Barn Owl --
seen flying S across Houston Rd., Chapel Hill, NC, with a full moon behind
it--summertime in my youth, between 1970 & 76. More recently
glimpsed by headlights on Grelen Farm Rd., 12/8/95. Karla Templer & I
saw one nesting in a tree in San Jose Community College on 6/2/03.
Common
Screech Owl -- heard & then
spotted w/flashlight (eyes only, really) near trunk of tree in backyard of
our house on Wyrick St., Chapel Hill, NC,
circa 1989. Heard at Grelen Farm, winter/spring of 1996.
Great
Horned Owl -- heard call while unpacking car on Cat Island, circa 9:00
pm on 12/23/96, and knew it was close; in fact, in the yard next door. Snuck
in to grab binoculars, and with help of full moon, spotted female (from call)
in a locust tree about twenty feet up; she stayed long enough for me to show
Mom, Dad and Kelly.
Barred
Owl -- two spotted in broad daylight on main quad of UNC-CH in May
of 1995, another seen in Hawkeye Wildlife Area N of Iowa City, 7/2/95.
Tawny
Owl -- heard as Kelly
and I went across the pedestrian bridge toward Civita on the night of 4/29/03.
At first we thought someone/thing was being
attacked, but Kelly decided it was a bird & that I should “go get
it.” I complained that it would have to fly over the bridge, but while
I flipped through my book, Kelly spotted it atop a tree near the parked car—perhaps
the same tree in which the Turtle Dove had lit earlier that day. I saw it only
briefly before it turned and flew off, but call & size were diagnostic.
Peter
Cashwell grew up in Chapel Hill, NC, and attended the University of North
Carolina. He used to have a lot of unusual jobs--radio announcer, rock musician,
comic-book critic, improv comedy accompanist--but he decided teaching was
unusual enough. He and his wife, Kelly Dalton, live with their two sons in
rural Virginia, where he teaches English and speech, coaches debate, reads
books, watches birds, plays the guitar and piano, writes, and doesn't get
to see nearly enough college basketball games. His writing has appeared in
The Comics Journal, in OnEarth Magazine, and on WVTF Radio. Along with Paul
Clark, Peter also created "Loose Canons," a literary humor column
for The Readerville Journal. His first book, The Verb 'To Bird',
was published by Paul Dry Books in 2003 and went on to be selected as a Discover!
book
by Barnes and Noble, a BookSense 76 pick by the American Booksellers Association,
and one of "Martha's Favorite Books" by the producers of Martha
Stewart Living Television. His essay "17 Things I Learned from Dean
Smith" appears in Basketball in America: From the Playgrounds to
Jordan's Game, and he is hard at work on his first novel, tentatively
titled A Raven for Doves.
PERSONAL DATA
Birthplace: Raleigh, NC
Birthdate: March 1, 1963
Married: Kelly Dalton, July 12, 1986; two sons, one dog
Diploma: Chapel Hill High School, 1981
Degrees: - Bachelor of Arts (English) with Honors in Creative Writing, UNC, 1985
- Master of Arts in Teaching (English Education) UNC, 1989
Occupations: - Teacher, Woodberry Forest School
- Freelance Writer
Personal Preferences: - Favorite Modern Play: Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
- Favorite Dead Chinese Poet: Tu Fu
- Favorite Family of Birds: Picidae (Woodpeckers)
- Favorite College Basketball Coach: Dean Smith, who else?
- Favorite Japanese Proverb: "Time spent laughing is time spent with the gods."
- Favorite Name for a City: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
- Favorite Line from Amelie: "I am no one's little weasel."
- Favorite Monty Python Sketch: The Argument Clinic
- Favorite Cover of a Johnny Cash Song: Wall of Voodoo's "Ring of Fire"
- Favorite Comic Strip (Current): Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury
- Favorite Comic Strip (Defunct): Walt Kelly's Pogo
- Least Favorite "Great" Author: Henry James
Favorite Imitation of Least Favorite "Great" Author: "...Henry James fixed me with his staring blank eye, it is like a child's marble, and said 'My dear Virginia they tell me, they tell me, they tell me, that you--as indeed being your father's daughter, nay your grandfather's grandchild, the descendant I may say of a century, of a century, of quill pen and ink, ink, inkpots, yes, yes, yes, they tell me, a h m m m, that you, that you, that you write in short.'"
--Virginia Woolf
Top Six Jeopardy! Categories: Birds of Eastern North America; Pop
Music 1970-1990; Comic Book History; World Literature; Breakfast Cereals;
UNC Basketball (1970-1990)
Peter
Cashwell grew up in Chapel Hill, NC, and attended the University of North
Carolina. He used to have a lot of unusual jobs--radio announcer, rock musician,
comic-book critic, improv comedy accompanist--but he decided teaching was
unusual enough. He and his wife, Kelly Dalton, live with their two sons in
rural Virginia, where he teaches English and speech, coaches debate, reads
books, watches birds, plays the guitar and piano, writes, and doesn't get
to see nearly enough college basketball games. His writing has appeared in
The Comics Journal, in OnEarth Magazine, and on WVTF Radio. Along with Paul
Clark, Peter also created "Loose Canons," a literary humor column
for The Readerville Journal. His first book, The Verb 'To Bird',
was published by Paul Dry Books in 2003 and went on to be selected as a Discover!
book
by Barnes and Noble, a BookSense 76 pick by the American Booksellers Association,
and one of "Martha's Favorite Books" by the producers of Martha
Stewart Living Television. His essay "17 Things I Learned from Dean
Smith" appears in Basketball in America: From the Playgrounds to
Jordan's Game, and he is hard at work on his first novel, tentatively
titled A Raven for Doves.