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Any Owl stories?
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This tiny grainy picture of a snowy owl, doesn't make much of a picture but it was a pretty neat encounter. I would do seal observations year 'round of a rocky low tide ledge in southern Maine. I was there for 8 years; for two of those winters there was a snowy owl irruption (is that the term) and for a week or two I would have company while I observed. This owl was there everyday I was .... it didn't seem particularly nervous about my presence, more by gulls that would swoop over it trying to get it to leave.
One winter a large group of snowy owls were using the Boston Airport as their winter home. These owls were banded and their heads dyed blue, so they could track their movements. For a day or two I was graced by the company of a blue headed owl, maybe slowly working its way back to the artic again.
Anybody have an owl story to tell?
Posted at 11:43AM, 25 February 2005 PDT
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Osrick - a snowy - was on my fist during an introduction to handling birds of prey...I was looking to get into raptor rehab. Anyhow, as I walked through fields and along roads with him, he began to make an astounding assortment of noises - clucking, oinking, barking, cooing...he was immitating all the animals that he had encountered during his walks by farm fields.
We were told that the birds viewed us as other birds of prey, and that owls would socialize with us, if they liked us. I brought my head down to Osrick's level, and lo and behold, he decided that my plumage was not quite right...so he began to preen me, taking little bits of hair and re-arranging them until they were perfect (in his opinion). I guess he liked me (probably because I gave him food :-)
Posted 88 months ago.
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I should give him more food!
I always thought Snowy owls were boring. (sorry) . When i see them they always sit quiet on the ground, doing nothing.
Posted 88 months ago.
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Great story! I wish I had known that, I could have used some preening.
Posted 88 months ago.
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My family and I have been watching barn owls that are up in a church steeple here in our town. They are awesome!
One night we were out of our car to get a better look watching them. One was up on the ledge bopping up & down a lot.
They watch us too. We've often wondered what we would do if one swooped down at us. If you get low to the ground wouldn't one still be able to fly about you and also wouldn't the chances of one actually attacking you be rare?
Posted 72 months ago.
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I really do not know. But it is wonderful that you have barn owls that close, and that you can see them and watch their behavior. Next time try to make a picture ;-) i really want to see them!
Originally posted 72 months ago.
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RoosjeVanDoorn (a group admin) edited this topic 72 months ago.
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Owls will defend their nests viciously and will attack humans who get too close: Eric Hosking (the first and most famous bird photographer) lost an eye to a Tawny Owl. However I've never heard of a wild owl attacking a human in any other situation and if you are on the ground and the owls' nest is high up on a ledge I'm pretty sure you would be safe.
(edited to correct a spelling mistake)
Originally posted 72 months ago.
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Dave Appleton edited this topic 58 months ago.
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ive been hit in the head by a barred owl with its wing, but it was just a warning. i was apparently too close to a nestling on the ground. i got the point.
we had a call from a woman (dave, you'll get a chuckle out of this!) who was out jogging one morning and claimed an unidentified owl headbutted her. she was calling us, not to question the behavior, or even to identify the species, but rather to ask what she could do to make it stop. my coworker told her "find another place to jog"
Posted 72 months ago.
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I was attacked by a screech owl once. I was walking late at night on a two-track path (a path occasionally used by farm tractors but little else) through some woods late at night. As is typical for me, I was not using a flashlight, but on this walk, I didn't even have one with me. Next thing I knew I heard this sharp little "Eeeep" and the rush of wings right by my head. It swooped at me like that 7 or 8 times, and each time it sounded the same, but I could NOT hear it coming - I'd only hear the wings as he pulled out of the swoop.
After he (or more likely, she) quit attacking, I went back to the car for a flashlight, returned to the same spot, and searched the trees for a nesting cavity, but found none.
Posted 71 months ago.
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A friend of mine has been the target of numerous aborted attacks by great-horned owls when calling coyotes using a call that imitates a wounded-rabbit. Once he was attacked by two at the same time, just seconds after he started calling.
Though I've often had great-horned owls fly right over my head while I've been out walking at night, I figure they just happened to fly over so close, being less fearful of humans at night than they are in the daytime. My neatest encounter was a few years ago in late summer/early fall. I was walking down a long two-track path alongside a strip of woods along a dammed-up river slough, and kept hearing the "feed me" call of a young great-horned owl (I've heard them begging for food from their parents on toward winter, though I doubt they are being fed anymore by that time). Though well beyond sight, the owl obvously knew I was coming, even though I treid to walk quietly, because the distance between me and the bird remained the same as I walked several hundred yards along the path. Finally, I came upon the owl and he stayed put, apparently because a sibling was nearby in another tree. I watched them both for a time, when the more distant of the two birds started intently staring at me, bobbing and circling his head as if to see me from different angles as best as he could without leaving his perch. Then he dropped off the tree branch in a typical great-horned-style swoop and without a single flap of the wings, gliding rapidly toward me as straight as an arrow, with his eyes fixed on me the whole way! Through 10-power binocs, it was a pretty fiersome sight! I put down the binocs and it didn't look so scary, and in a couple more seconds he was very close and turned slightly so as not to go right over my head, but still he passed not much more than 10 feet from me. He then turned even sharper toward the edge of some pines, zipped around the corner (flapping his wings for the first time) and was gone. I guess his curiousity got the best of him and he needed to take a closer look.
Originally posted 71 months ago.
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ecl58 edited this topic 71 months ago.
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Okay, I don't want to dominate the board, but I have one more great-horned owl story that some here might find interesting.
I was in a local conservation park one evening to listen to and watch a nesting pair of great-horned owls. I approached one of the birds who was perched very high in a dead tree that overlooks a large wet meadow. At one point, I saw the owl rapidly scoot out over the meadow in a straight line, do a very sharp U-turn while 30 or 40 feet of the ground, and return to his perch. A little while later he did it again. I walked as close as I dared and waited, and again he made a bee-line out over the meadow, but this time I was near enough to watch more closely. With 10x50 binocs my view was not just maginified, but brighter than with the naked eye, and silouhetted against the sky I CLEARLY saw the owl fly up behind a fluttering speck, and when the owl merged with the speck, the speck did not appear again. This owl had caught a flying bat! I think the only reason he was successful is that bat was flying in a pretty straight line, and the owl approached from directly behind. Apparently, bat sonar isn't too effective at scanning directly behind them.
Posted 71 months ago.
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Would any of you Owl lovers please go to www.geocities.com/davesteff2000 and let me have your comments.
Thanks !!
Dave
Posted 58 months ago.
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There is a local park that has an old brick building. For over 10 years I have had the pleasure of watching a Great Horned Owl and her chicks. The building is situated where people are constantly admiring it and yet her owlets are positioned where they are out smack in an opening and yet no one unless they are really observant ever notices them. Unfortunately last year is the first time in 10 years that she did not return.
Posted 53 months ago.
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Wags1956 [deleted] says:
We have barn owls and Great horned owls at work. springtime is pretty wild. We also have Ravens and I get frustrated when I observe the Ravens dominate. they will kill the young owls who have recently left the nest, while the adults seem to watch. Ravens work as a team to drive away the adults too. We do our best to collect the young owls in the morning and hide them, otherwise the Ravens will get them. We would love to see the adult owls swoop down and protect their young, but it never happens. I've also observed that the Ravens are far more inttelligent and better flyers than the owls. The great horned owls will kill the barn owls (they rip their heads off) but they leave the more threatening Ravens alone. I have some decent shots of all the above in my photo stream.
Posted 53 months ago.
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repost from my owl set:
so, i've seen some pretty cool shit in my life of nature and bird watching and all that stuff, but today was maybe one of the most exciting moments i've had since doing this sort of thing. i went to the W. Blakely Hoar sanctuary, which is a little tucked away forest/wetland area in Brookline, right near Chestnut Hill. it's about a 20 minute walk from the chestnut hill Dline stop.
anyhow, i had been exploring what seemed like a very lovely, quiet forest for about an hour, and had scarcely seen or heard anything all day except for a couple of nuthatches. i was getting a little bummed out, and every step i took on the ice and snow seemed to echo and crunch wicked loudly, i was sure that i wasn't going to see anything without totally blowing my cover.
right as i am getting ready to leave the park, there's a quiet little part behind a cliff of glacial conglomerate rocks. there's no snow here, so you can walk pretty softly on the pine needles and leaves. as i'm sort of creeping through this area, i for no reason at all turn around and see a large shape sort of hanging in this tree. for a second, all i see is the bottom half of it, and i thought it was a hawk, which didn't really make sense to me being in a pretty dense forest.
as i came back a few steps, i could see it was the biggest owl i have ever seen in my life, absolutely frozen still in this tree. two giant black eyes, just watching me as i'm stepping an inch at a time towards it. the whole time it was just hanging out and completely motionless and silent, except for an occasional blink and even a Wink! i hung out with it for about 10 minutes before i finally lost him (they also fly completely silently) - i didn't even notice him leave.
anyhow, thanks for reading and here's the pics.
after checking my field guide, i am pretty confident it's a Barred Owl. RAD!
link to the set
Posted 53 months ago.
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I have a collection of around 100 owl figurines from metals, rocks, wood, shells, etc.
I wanted to have a pet owl before but it is now prohibited to own and take care of owls since most of them are endangered species. Somebody wanted to give me an owl but refused because I may not be able to raise it properly. I am now contented with just having the figurines.
Anyone who wants to send me some owl figurines?
Posted 53 months ago.
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Beautiful photo and great story, quad! I agree that this is a Barred Owl.
Posted 53 months ago.
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thanks!!
Posted 53 months ago.
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