The last couple of winters we’ve had a great horned in our neighborhood. Each year I’ve made the attempt to locate it a couple of times while walking my dogs. Pretty easy to narrow down the location - not always so easy to spot the bird.
Last winter I was letting my dogs out early on a.m., and stepped outside to appreciate the sky. Was shocked when the owl took flight from relatively low in my nextdoor neighbor’s tree. Up close the darned things are HUGE, and they are absolutely silent in flight.
I just saw one the other day with my daughter while driving home from school.
It flew in front of my car and perched on a neighbour’s mailbox. I pulled into their driveway and it turned around to look at us - it was probably about five feet away.
I noticed it especially because it was so chubby looking…fat little bird.
Very cute and I am so glad my daughter got to see it.
The squirrels. Don’t let them fool you, they are the hackers in the forest community, and sell their information to anyone. I’m certain that they intercept my emails telling my boss that I’m headed out of the office, and into the woods. They then tell the deer, and they avoid my stand.
Then they scurry around my stand, making me think there may be a deer nearby.
Seriously, they make owl calls, and sell them in hunting stores. I believe the hooting of an owl will generally get turkeys to make noise, and help you find their roosts. I’d imagine that an owl might hoot back, giving you an assist in trying to find & see it.
It’s usually best to look for owls at roosts in the morning. By mid-morning they may have been found by crows or jays and moved off. If they are in public parks, they may be scared off by early-morning dog walkers. So I would say between 7-10 AM is best.
Playing owl calls at night is a standard way to locate them. The hours just after dusk are probably best. They will often answer and sometimes come in to where they can be seen. You can just download calls from the internet and play them back with portable speakers.
This said, playing calls should not be done indiscriminately, especially during the breeding season (which is now for Great Horned Owls). It can cause the birds to think another owl has invaded their territory, and disturb their behavior. So if you do this, do it in a limited fashion, and avoid doing it anywhere near a known nest tree.
On a related topic, I have been energized to become a trainspotter by the recent discovery of train tracks near where I live. Though I cannot yet identify the species of train by these tracks, I am tempted to suggest they belong to the Acne Western, i.e., Stridex occidentalis. But I’m just guessing. From the distance at which I can hear mine hooting I am of the belief it is quite large. With sufficient application of my energies I hope someday to find its nest.
We have several birds of prey in our urban area, bounded by a looping of two interstates less than than 1k from the central business district. Three years ago they had torn down an old crumbling church but left the bell tower, and I was out walking my four pound Yorkshire terrorist just after sundown. Out of nowhere, a huge shadowy figure silently swept down, but fortunately Buddy and I reacted quickly enough to avoid bloodshed. While I wouldn’t recommend it, big owls are definitely drawn to small furry critters at dusk.
We also have sharp-shinned and red-tailed hawks frequenting the micro-ecosystem that surround interstate highway interchanges. Mice, voles, and other rodents abound, so the death from above have a bountiful food supply. In recent years, they have reintroduced peregrine falcons to our downtown, and I’ve seen them this winter cruising just above eye level down my street, as well as perched in a neighbor’s stand of pines. Urban wildlife rocks!
Every time I’ve spotted an owl has been at the crack of dawn, or in the twilight of dusk. Their vision in low light is legendary, but they are not able to see in total darkness. Dead of night is not usually their active time, nor is the middle of the day.
I am reminded of one time back in the 1980s. I was staying with a friend in Mae Hong Son province, the most northwestern province in Thailand, on the border with Burma. The area had no electricity, and a door or two down from my friend was a little outdoor restaurant. No walls, but a thatch roof. A power generator supplied electricity for light.
My friend and I were at one table, a group of Thai men are getting drunk at another. A beautiful owl came flying in and settled down up in one of the crossbars of the roof. A beautiful bird.
One of the drunken Thais leaped into action. Jumped up on the table, performed a standing jump, grabbed the owl by the legs, came down, hopped onto the ground, swung, bashed it hard on the table and sent it off to the kitchen to be cooked.
I lived in Mae Hong Son for some years. Why? What’s odd about the name? (That is where they filmed most of the movie Air America. I met Mel Gibson at the time, detailed elsewhere on the board.)
Dunno how the owl was cooked. We were trying our best to ignore the drunken Thai men.
