Owl Time

[starsurfer]

Has anyone ever seen any owls or have any interesting owl related stories?

[Chris Peterson]

Has anyone ever seen any owls or have any interesting owl related stories?

A few years back we were out walking and came across what almost looked like a turkey. It was a Long-eared owl, injured in some way so that it couldn't fly (probably a head injury), just spreading its feathers to look threatening. We captured it and got it to a wildlife rehab center. After a couple months we brought it back and released it into the same bit of forest where we found it. These images show it as it was when found, and just after it was released. (The rehab center named it "Guffey".)
_

[Fred the Cat]

A while back we were visited each evening for a few weeks by young western screech owls emerging for their nightly hoots. We suspected they had nested in a nearby tree. We still hear owls frequently as they go about searching for sustenance and companionship.

[BDanielMayfield]

My wife and I are birders, so our owl sightings have accumulated over the years. Also, we used to live near the Nueces river in San Patricio Texas where we would hear Barred Owls very often, which was nice since that location was near the extreme southern end of that species range.

Our two most memorable owl encounters both happened in west Texas on a trip to Big Bend National Park, both while camping near the Rio Grande river, and involved species near the extremes of the size range for owls. After dusk one warm May evening in the Rio Grande Village campsite we were delighted at seeing tiny Elf Owls flitting about above our open roofed tent. Then later that trip we were sitting at a table across from each other at Cottonwood Campground having supper. Suddenly I exclaimed, "There's an owl flying at your head!" and Vicki ducked just as a Great Horned Owl swooped just a few feet over us. It is quite possible that the owl was thinking that her reddish blond hair was some varmit to have for dinner. Or, maybe we just happened to be in the middle of its glide path as it sailed on toward its next perch? I'm not sure which, because after passing us it just glided straight on, but, dang it y'all, that coulda been narly if I didn't see it coming

Bruce

[neufer]

Great Horned Owls Will Attack You, so Beware of Them

---

<<All predators are territorial, and the great horned owl is no different. These owls are known to at times dive bomb humans. If you know good and well you are in an area where owls are attacking, then you should carry an umbrella. When it is raining owl talons, yes, an umbrella, thin and simple as one is, can provide some deterrence. The great horned owl's talons are the dangerous thing, that and the fact you won't be looking for one when one is looking to injure you. Five hundred pounds per square inch is the pressure said owl's talons can exert against your skin. Losing an eye is certainly within the realm of possibilities. The strength of the great horned owl's talons is comparable to that of a golden eagle, or to that of a German shepherd's bite.>>

[BDanielMayfield]

Well starsurfer, sorry to have given this nice thread such a dark turn, but we still love owls too, in spite of the encounter that almost qualified us for being subjects of Animal Planet’s I Was Prey series. (Vicki informed me that the Great Horned Owl encounter was on a previous trip to our seeing the Elf Owls.) But it’s very true that Great Horned Owls can be quite dangerous. In fact, I’ve heard that men wearing coonskin caps have (allegedly) been killed by owls.

Bruce

[starsurfer]

Well starsurfer, sorry to have given this nice thread such a dark turn, but we still love owls too, in spite of the encounter that almost qualified us for being subjects of Animal Planet’s I Was Prey series. (Vicki informed me that the Great Horned Owl encounter was on a previous trip to our seeing the Elf Owls.) But it’s very true that Great Horned Owls can be quite dangerous. In fact, I’ve heard that men wearing coonskin caps have (allegedly) been killed by owls.

Bruce

No need to apologize, it's all part of the yin yang. I have never seen an owl in my life but barred owls and great horned owls are my favourites.

[BDanielMayfield]

I have never seen an owl in my life but barred owls and great horned owls are my favourites.

Never seen an owl!? How about hearing them? They're much more often heard than seen. I heard two Great Horned owls calling back and forth to each other last night in fact.

Bruce

[owlice]

I love owls (which I suspect is no surprise to folks here ). I've seen numerous owls both in rehab facilities and in the wild. Years ago, my best friend and I both had meetings in San Francisco the same week. We flew west early so we could spend the weekend before our meetings birding in the San Joaquin Valley. On Saturday afternoon, as we drove through the farmland in our rental car, one of us broke the silence by remarking, "Wouldn't it be cool to see an owl?" Not five minutes later, a Barn Owl nearly flew through the open window of our car, swooped up and over the car, and landed on a nearby fence post, apparently so we could take photos of him from the car.

My avatar photo was taken by my then-nine-year-old son when we visited the North Carolina Raptor Center.

[saturno2]

I saw a baby owl months ago
I was just beautiful very beautiful

[BDanielMayfield]

I saw a baby owl months ago
I was just beautiful very beautiful

Do you know what kind owl it was saturno2?

I don't have much of a story to tell about it, but another neat owl I've seen a few times back in Texas was the Burrowing Owl. They don't need no stinkin' trees.


Bruce

[starsurfer]

I have never seen an owl in my life but barred owls and great horned owls are my favourites.

Never seen an owl!? How about hearing them? They're much more often heard than seen. I heard two Great Horned owls calling back and forth to each other last night in fact.

Bruce

I might have heard an owl but I'm not sure.

[Retrograde]

In my old suburb, at the edge of town giving way to desert & farmland, you could see what I guess are burrowing owls. Big earth mounds left by some excavator years ago, with dozens of little openings like gopher holes, were left alongside an irrigation drainage canal. In daylight, just walking by, you'd see little owl faces pop out at you, like whack-a-mole, but with giant owl-eyes staring at you.



Like this, but lots of them.

[BDanielMayfield]

I don't have much of a story to tell about it, but another neat owl I've seen a few times back in Texas was the Burrowing Owl. They don't need no stinkin' trees.

In my old suburb, at the edge of town giving way to desert & farmland, you could see what I guess are burrowing owls. Big earth mounds left by some excavator years ago, with dozens of little openings like gopher holes, were left alongside an irrigation drainage canal. In daylight, just walking by, you'd see little owl faces pop out at you, like whack-a-mole, but with giant owl-eyes staring at you.



Like this, but lots of them.

Very nice first post Retrograde!

Burrowing owls are a new world species, and they're not very small owls either. Little owls also sometimes nest in the ground but they're an old world species, and I think the photo you posted was of Little Owls. What part of the planet did you see them in?

Bruce

[saturno2]

I saw a baby owl months ago
I was just beautiful very beautiful

Do you know what kind owl it was saturno2?

I don't have much of a story to tell about it, but another neat owl I've seen a few times back in Texas was the Burrowing Owl. They don't need no stinkin' trees.


Bruce

The truth is that I do not know what kind
Was the baby owl that I saw
in my zone it is not common to see an owl

[saturno2]

Now I remember. YEars ago I woke up one night at
5 o'clock in the morning and I saw an owl in my
Window that was open.
Reviewing ( now) the encyclopedia I realized
That it was an owl of burrow.
It had a big head, was brown and had no visible ears.
But what caught my attention was his intense look.
It was calm and It did not emit any sound.

[saturno2]

Thanks

[BDanielMayfield]

Now I remember. YEars ago I woke up one night at
5 o'clock in the morning and I saw an owl in my
Window that was open.
Reviewing ( now) the encyclopedia I realized
That it was an owl of burrow.
It had a big head, was brown and had no visible ears.
But what caught my attention was his intense look.
It was calm and It did not emit any sound.

This was somewhere in South America, no? If so a burrowing owl is likely, even though it was a peeping tom. (sorry if that joke doesn't translate saturno2)

[saturno2]

Now I remember. YEars ago I woke up one night at
5 o'clock in the morning and I saw an owl in my
Window that was open.
Reviewing ( now) the encyclopedia I realized
That it was an owl of burrow.
It had a big head, was brown and had no visible ears.
But what caught my attention was his intense look.
It was calm and It did not emit any sound.

This was somewhere in South America, no? If so a burrowing owl is likely, even though it was a peeping tom. (sorry if that joke doesn't translate saturno2)

I live in Ecuador, South America
The owl was real, indeed.
I if understood the joke

[BDanielMayfield]

Ecuador, that's fantastic saturno2! I think Ecuador has the longest list of bird species in the world (1,632). Here's the list of Owls that have been seen in your country;

Owls

Order: Strigiformes Family: Strigidae

The typical owls are small to large solitary nocturnal birds of prey. They have large forward-facing eyes and ears, a hawk-like beak, and a conspicuous circle of feathers around each eye called a facial disk. Twenty-seven species have been recorded in Ecuador.

White-throated screech-owl, Megascops albogularis
Tropical screech-owl, Megascops choliba
Rufescent screech-owl, Megascops ingens
Cinnamon screech-owl, Megascops petersoni
Choco screech-owl, Megascops centralis
Foothill screech-owl, Megascops roraimae
Peruvian screech-owl, Megascops roboratus
Tawny-bellied screech-owl, Megascops watsonii
Crested owl, Lophostrix cristata
Spectacled owl, Pulsatrix perspicillata
Band-bellied owl, Pulsatrix melanota
Great horned owl, Bubo virginianus
Mottled owl, Ciccaba virgata
Black-and-white owl, Ciccaba nigrolineata
Black-banded owl, Ciccaba huhula
Rufous-banded owl, Ciccaba albitarsis
Cloud-forest pygmy-owl, Glaucidium nubicola
Andean pygmy-owl, Glaucidium jardinii
Subtropical pygmy-owl, Glaucidium parkeri
Central American pygmy-owl, Glaucidium griseiceps
Ferruginous pygmy-owl, Glaucidium brasilianum
Peruvian pygmy-owl, Glaucidium peruanum
Burrowing owl, Athene cunicularia
Buff-fronted owl, Aegolius harrisii
Striped owl, Asio clamator
Stygian owl, Asio stygius
Short-eared owl, Asio fammeus

As for a "peeping tom", in the U.S. it is what someone who peers into others' bedroom windows (like your owl) is called. "Tom" is also what we call male turkeys.

Bruce

[saturno2]

Ecuador, that's fantastic saturno2! I think Ecuador has the longest list of bird species in the world (1,632). Here's the list of Owls that have been seen in your country;

Owls

Order: Strigiformes Family: Strigidae

The typical owls are small to large solitary nocturnal birds of prey. They have large forward-facing eyes and ears, a hawk-like beak, and a conspicuous circle of feathers around each eye called a facial disk. Twenty-seven species have been recorded in Ecuador.

White-throated screech-owl, Megascops albogularis
Tropical screech-owl, Megascops choliba
Rufescent screech-owl, Megascops ingens
Cinnamon screech-owl, Megascops petersoni
Choco screech-owl, Megascops centralis
Foothill screech-owl, Megascops roraimae
Peruvian screech-owl, Megascops roboratus
Tawny-bellied screech-owl, Megascops watsonii
Crested owl, Lophostrix cristata
Spectacled owl, Pulsatrix perspicillata
Band-bellied owl, Pulsatrix melanota
Great horned owl, Bubo virginianus
Mottled owl, Ciccaba virgata
Black-and-white owl, Ciccaba nigrolineata
Black-banded owl, Ciccaba huhula
Rufous-banded owl, Ciccaba albitarsis
Cloud-forest pygmy-owl, Glaucidium nubicola
Andean pygmy-owl, Glaucidium jardinii
Subtropical pygmy-owl, Glaucidium parkeri
Central American pygmy-owl, Glaucidium griseiceps
Ferruginous pygmy-owl, Glaucidium brasilianum
Peruvian pygmy-owl, Glaucidium peruanum
Burrowing owl, Athene cunicularia
Buff-fronted owl, Aegolius harrisii
Striped owl, Asio clamator
Stygian owl, Asio stygius
Short-eared owl, Asio fammeus

As for a "peeping tom", in the U.S. it is what someone who peers into others' bedroom windows (like your owl) is called. "Tom" is also what we call male turkeys.

Bruce

The owl that I saw in my window it was of the specie Athene curricularia, an owl of burrow,
Known in Ecuador as land owl ( Wikipedia)
I really did not know that in Ecuador there was so many species of owls.
But many species of birds are in danger off extintion for the advance of cities,
Zones industrials, mining and oil.

[Retrograde]

Very nice first post Retrograde!

Burrowing owls are a new world species, and they're not very small owls either. Little owls also sometimes nest in the ground but they're an old world species, and I think the photo you posted was of Little Owls. What part of the planet did you see them in?

Bruce

I suppose the size of an owl is relative. My only other owl story is about the one that lived in a palm tree when I was a kid. I was too young to wait outside for her nocturnal breakfast-run, so I never got a good look. That I knew she was an owl at all is by the hundreds of furry rodent jaw bones and femurs that collected at the base of the palm over the years (at the time that was real proto-metal, but I resisted any re-assembly).

This was the same age that The Secret of Nimh played to, so that owl took on a kind of totemic quality. So also, maybe, the few glimpses I got were of a supernaturally large animal.

Meanwhile the burrowing owls appeared to be made entirely of two huge eyes, staring back without any fear, from their very-New World dirt mounds. I don't think I saw a whole bird ever.

(OK, not a story but confusion: I've heard maybe a couple hoo-hoo!'s in my life--but it seems like standard owl noises are closer to cats stuck in an old box spring.)