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Owls......

Lawdwaz

By Lawdwaz,
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Lawdwaz Grand Master

Lawdwaz

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Growie mentioned an owl that I'd never heard of before; a Pygmy Owl.  I Googled it, wow what a cool little thing! (no relation to our resident Pygmy here though, AFAIK........ :D )

 

I had an encounter with a owl years ago while calling fox with a friend.  We were just kids back in the mid 70's and were honking on a Burnham Brothers mouth call when a great horned owl just about took the hat off my buddies head in a FLASH.  It was one of those things that you will never forget...........

 

Another cool owl story happened about 6-8 years ago while tracking a wounded spiker ( :D ) one night.  I had a flashlight and my buddy had a Coleman propane lantern.  We were in the red pines and only 30 yards from the dead buck and my buddy flashed his lantern up a bit and there in front of us at around 5' of the ground, sitting on a branch was a screech owl.  He just sat there for about 20 second just mere feet away from us, wondering WTH we were............he then lit out, off to enjoy his night.  THAT was another cool encounter.

 

 

Please note, NONE of this is Brian Williams'd.  :negative:

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wooly Newbie

wooly

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I don't see much owl variety around here, but the last few years seems like the barred owl population has exploded in this area.....but maybe that's just because I look for them now. I see a ton of them.

Always looking for screech owls but still unable to spot one of those camoed creatures anywhere.

Pygmy owls I got no love for. I hear they eat mermaids,lol

 

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Curmudgeon Newbie

Curmudgeon

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Barred Owls have been expanding their range with the return of forests. Screech are common but as with all nocturnal owls, hard to find. You can attract them using the same nest boxes as American Kestrels. You'll find Barred and Great-horned abroad in daylight in late spring. They need to hunt during the long days because their young are quite large at that time. If you are in an area with Short-eared Owls, you can find them hunting before sunset. You need to know where they are. Snowy Owls are back in NY this winter. Not in the numbers seen last year but they are around.

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growalot Newbie

growalot

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Law....... those tiny little owls are cool...but as you see they are suppose to be a western coast owl???...yet he distinctly told me it was a pygmy owl from my discription??  What ever it was..... just too cool they like hovered for just a second in front of my face then tumbled off through the air feet clutched together...lol

Any whoo the next best encounter before that was  when I first started turkey hunting and I was hunkered down behind the house in a small brush blind...the night was fairly bright and I sat there waiting for fly down...I had heard him but it sounded farther away..when I re-adjusted my foot and a rather large owl silently glided in and grabbed the end of my boot...needless to say my screech scared us both and he let go...but didn't go far and sounded peturbed a few minutes later....lol

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ants Newbie

ants

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This time of year, I have seen snow owls at the local airport. I don't know why they like that spot so much, but they are the coolest looking birds I have ever seen. Pure white. If they were sitting in a snow covered tree you would never see them.

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Pygmy Experienced

Pygmy

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Pygmy owls would be very unlikely here in the east..

 

Good chance it was a saw-whet..They are quite common here, but like cuckoos, heard much more often than seen.

 

Screech owls aren't very big either, and they are very common.

 

Short ears are cool... Most folks would think they are hawks when they see them flying low mousing over weed fields just before dark.  This is SUMMER to them..They live and breed in the far north and only visit here in the winter, same as rough legged hawks.

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Pygmy Experienced

Pygmy

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I don't see much owl variety around here, but the last few years seems like the barred owl population has exploded in this area.....but maybe that's just because I look for them now. I see a ton of them.

Always looking for screech owls but still unable to spot one of those camoed creatures anywhere.

Pygmy owls I got no love for. I hear they eat mermaids,lol

 

 

Wooly...I have a photo of a screech owl.. The little bugger was sitting in the road in front of my truck..I got out and walked right up to him...He didn't appear injured, so I took a couple of pictures of him and then gently nudged his butt with the toe of my shoe..He flew away, apparently healthy.

 

If I can find the picture, I'll PM you and send it to you..Perhaps you can reproduce it and post it here.

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wooly Newbie

wooly

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Pictures always make a post better IMO.

Send it my way if you can find it Pygmy.

I like to look for clues in others photos that point me in the right direction of capturing my own.

I gotta say, I'm enjoying the heck out of some of the non-deery topics here lately.

 

One of my owl pics just for show and tell.

These guys have become so abundant here lately that I often just keep on hiking past them without taking any pics, knowing I'll likely encounter another one or two further down the trail. I need to change that this year and really let it rip with the camera. Right now my new camera is in the shop for repairs so I haven't been out much. :cry:  

 

medium.jpg

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Pygmy Experienced

Pygmy

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Very nice picture of a barred owl, Wooly...

 

I have had them follow me around the woods when I was trolling for turkeys...Walking around, stopping and calling, hoping for an answer.

 

They also respond very well to barred owl hoots, even at noon...In fact one of my hunting partners ( former NYS Owl Hooting Champion) claims they are easier to call in at mid day than at dusk and dawn, because in low light hours they are busy hunting, rather than socializing with other owls.

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Lawdwaz Grand Master

Lawdwaz

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Very nice picture of a barred owl, Wooly...

 

I have had them follow me around the woods when I was trolling for turkeys...Walking around, stopping and calling, hoping for an answer.

 

They also respond very well to barred owl hoots, even at noon...In fact one of my hunting partners ( former NYS Owl Hooting Champion) claims they are easier to call in at mid day than at dusk and dawn, because in low light hours they are busy hunting, rather than socializing with other owls.

 

I'm probably in the minority here on this but to me, one of the coolest things you can EVER encounter is a barred owl replying to you and then he/she goes into that monkey type call.  You spring turkey hunters know what I mean!

 

Oooo, aw aw aw aw.......or something like that.  It starts with (as Dick Kirby used to say) "who cooks for you, who cooks for you all........."  Then the monkey call starts. :)

 

I've had bull elk bugle in my lap (20 yards?), whitetail bucks going NUTS under my treestand and gobblers shaking the entire woods only yards away but the call of the barred owl is just amazing to me. I love it!

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Pygmy Experienced

Pygmy

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I'm probably in the minority here on this but to me, one of the coolest things you can EVER encounter is a barred owl replying to you and then he/she goes into that monkey type call.  You spring turkey hunters know what I mean!

 

Oooo, aw aw aw aw.......or something like that.  It starts with (as Dick Kirby used to say) "who cooks for you, who cooks for you all........."  Then the monkey call starts. :)

 

I've had bull elk bugle in my lap (20 yards?), whitetail bucks going NUTS under my treestand and gobblers shaking the entire woods only yards away but the call of the barred owl is just amazing to me. I love it!

 

Just last spring when I was gobbler hunting on The Mermaid's property I was right in the middle of 3 or 4 barred owls just going crazy with the hooting, barking, laughing , "monkey calling", or whatever....I wish I could have recorded it..It was wild....Sounded like I was in a Tarzan movie...

 

Damn gobblers weren't impressed ,tho..They never said a thing....

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