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09/06/2009 12:46:36 AM · #1 |
I was coming home from work a couple weeks ago and happened to see this guy in the woods next to my house. Was lucky to pick him up, he was pretty well camouflaged.
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09/06/2009 03:32:08 AM · #2 |
| Veryyy nice! I've never managed to see one in the wild (that I know of, at least) and I KNOW we have them around here. |
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09/06/2009 09:27:52 AM · #3 |
Hey, that's very cool! I'm jealous. :-)
Did the owl fly off shortly after taking the photos? I ask because in the photos you can see that it's moved around on the branch between frames. |
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09/06/2009 10:01:01 AM · #4 |
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09/06/2009 10:28:05 AM · #5 |
| oh!! so cool! I heard one very close, perhaps in the back yard, but I couldn't find him. |
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09/06/2009 11:35:00 AM · #6 |
Fun, aren't they? I had a whole family of barred owls hanging around my backyard for a month last year. I took so many pictures for so long that they grew accustomed to me, and I could often get very close. One of my better entries came from this group. They're very hard to spot in daylight, but for a while they would hoot back if I called, making it much easier to track them down.
Message edited by author 2009-09-06 11:36:36. |
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09/06/2009 12:36:43 PM · #7 |
We've got a pair of mystery owls around the neighbourhood lately. They call back and forth from a distance of a couple or three blocks apart and we can NOT identify the call. We've seen one in the yard a couple times but, of course, it's night and we can only get a rough idea of size and shape. It seems nearly as tall as a great horned but slimmer in build. We thought maybe barn, but the one time I was able to shine the flashlight on it (the beam was weak by the time it reached the owl) its breast didn't look white, and I got the impression of streaks, though in flight the wingspan still seems barn owlish.
What really puzzles us is its call. I can NOT find anything like it in all the recordings I've dug up, and none of the bigger owls are supposed to have a voice like that. It's about the pitch of a red-tailed hawk, loud and clear and piercing, but only about a second and a half long, clipped rather than tapering off. The barn owl is one of the few with a higher voice but it seems weaker, more wheezy, and supposedly it normally only uses it near its nest.
I've been listening for it, hoping it would come back to the yard so I could get a better look, but though I still hear them every few days I haven't heard one really close. I even joined an owl forum, hoping for an answer, but they're as puzzled as I am. Their best advice? Try to get a picture, and then they'd be able to identify it. Hell, if I could get a picture I could identify it!
Any fellow owl-lovers got an identification for me? :)
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09/06/2009 12:54:57 PM · #8 |
Originally posted by scalvert:
Fun, aren't they? I had a whole family of barred owls hanging around my backyard for a month last year. I took so many pictures for so long that they grew accustomed to me, and I could often get very close. One of my better entries came from this group. They're very hard to spot in daylight, but for a while they would hoot back if I called, making it much easier to track them down. |
THEY were in your backyard???
Jeez, I'm moving in with you..
Bet you can't wait. |
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09/06/2009 01:02:09 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by BeeCee:
It's about the pitch of a red-tailed hawk, loud and clear and piercing, but only about a second and a half long, clipped rather than tapering off. |
Juvenile barred owl (they're still quite large). Listen to the "begging call" here. |
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09/06/2009 01:12:59 PM · #10 |
Originally posted by scalvert:
Originally posted by BeeCee:
It's about the pitch of a red-tailed hawk, loud and clear and piercing, but only about a second and a half long, clipped rather than tapering off. |
Juvenile barred owl (they're still quite large). Listen to the "begging call" here. |
Nope, darn it. That one ascends at the end, while ours descends slightly, and at a higher pitch. It's also very clear and sharp, not..."breathy"?
Arghhh, this is driving me nuts! We're going away for a week and I just KNOW that they'll be hanging right around my house the whole time we're away, only to move off again the day we get home.
Message edited by author 2009-09-07 00:21:27. |
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09/07/2009 02:43:23 AM · #11 |
Originally posted by glad2badad:
Hey, that's very cool! I'm jealous. :-)
Did the owl fly off shortly after taking the photos? I ask because in the photos you can see that it's moved around on the branch between frames. |
He hung around for about another 4-5 minutes after these images were taken, believe me there were about 30 I threw out, these two were the best.
He just kind of hopped one way and another on the branch for quite some time, I'd say 15-20 minutes. The shots were taken from about 50 yards away in my driveway, there is a gravel road below my driveway that would have allowed me to get much closer but I figured I would spook him. |
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09/07/2009 03:19:17 AM · #12 |
Originally posted by scalvert:
Fun, aren't they? I had a whole family of barred owls hanging around my backyard for a month last year. I took so many pictures for so long that they grew accustomed to me, and I could often get very close. One of my better entries came from this group. They're very hard to spot in daylight, but for a while they would hoot back if I called, making it much easier to track them down. |
Came as quite a surprise to me, I had heard them on occasion back in the forest in the evenings. After reading up some more on them they don't seem too fazed by humans, so if I get lucky again I might try for a closer approach. |
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