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Hey, I like bobcats, but respect them. I believe bobcats displaced the lynx in many places, and now lynx are pretty rare, mostly. Anyone have lynx in their area?
Back to raptors, we have a lot of red tail hawks (among others) in central N.C. The females are much bigger than the males and look somewhat like eagles until you focus in on the markings. I had a big young female red tail in my yard for a while, feeding on chipmunks. That's a lot of bird. I regularly feed crows in my yard. They'll haul away a bag full of bread loaf ends and stale biscuits in short order. They also enjoy greeting us by tapping on the skylights with their beaks, the crows do. When I go outside and hail them, they look completely blase. "Hey, what's his problem?" they "say" looking a each other.
Back to raptors, we have a lot of red tail hawks (among others) in central N.C. The females are much bigger than the males and look somewhat like eagles until you focus in on the markings. I had a big young female red tail in my yard for a while, feeding on chipmunks. That's a lot of bird. I regularly feed crows in my yard. They'll haul away a bag full of bread loaf ends and stale biscuits in short order. They also enjoy greeting us by tapping on the skylights with their beaks, the crows do. When I go outside and hail them, they look completely blase. "Hey, what's his problem?" they "say" looking a each other.
MSO funny you should talk about the red tailed hawk. Last week I looked at my neighbors Wood Duck Box across a little slew by me, and lo and behold a big Red Hawk was on it. Never have seen that down here. He stayed around a couple days, flying over the rice fields, he's gone now.
I had an interesting owl encounter last year while I was at sea near the Arctic Circle around Iceland. We had pulled into a fjord for a couple of days to wait for a storm system to pass. Not long after the storm had passed we left the fjord and we're beyond sight of land when I wandered out to the after deck and noticed several sea birds following us. Out of the crowd a brown round headed bird looked out of place. As I looked closer I identified it as an owl. This was very odd so I moved behind a piece deck equipment to watch it. But, as I was aware of it, it was aware of me. As I stood there watching it, it accelerated and started to overtake the ship. As it pulled alongside it fixed its eyes on me with obvious curiosity and intelligence, as interested in me as I was of it. The encounter was fascinating and exillerating to have mutual sentient contact such as this. He continued on ahead and I don't know what became of that owl. I only hope he was able to find his way back to land after following us out to sea.
We have some that roost very near our house. See them in our yard on a fairly regular basis. But no matter how many times I see then I still get excited every time. Also amazed at how big they are.
I have seen a few owls during the day up where I live, though when Im out enjoying my pipe at night I hear them a lot. As far as raptors Go there are many Bald Eagles in my area. Amazing birds to see up close. They never cease to amaze me.
paganAround these parts they say that if an owl sits on the roof top of your house and sings, somebody in that house will die. Actually my wife has a friend that swears by it, claiming that the night her mother died an owl sang by her window. God knows ... I really don't buy into superstitions much, but sometimes they prove oddly true. I like owls, they are good pest control birds. I shot one by accident in the fall two yeas ago, I felt pretty sorry about it. It was a thick brush and the dog scared them - knowing that they are night birds I wouldn't imagine they fly during day time, I thought they were falcons so I fired. I was a bit disappointed, and outright mad when the taxidermist managed to ruin the bird. Falcons eat pheasant eggs, so as rare as they are in these parts we really don't want them. Owls ... different story. A kind of strix grows around here, they are not large but very elegant, still feeling sorry for that bird.
In the early 1960's I remember Bald Eagles being very near to extinction in the US... now, around here(north central PEE-AY), we see Bald EAgles about 100 times more than owls. We hear the owls in the summer time. Spread over 40 years I think I've actually seen owls in nature maybe 3 times total... a great horned owl, a barn owl, and a snowy owl. We didn't think the snowy owl range was this far south but it was a match to the one in our bird book. Incidentally I believe the snowyowl was smoking a pipe.
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We live in the middle of our 40 acres of woods in Minnesota. Surrounding our 40 acres are more woods and wetlands. We hear owls all the time at dusk and during the night. We keep the window above our head cracked (during cold weather) or open (during hotter weather) just to hear the night sounds. We also have a sliding door in our bedroom that stays open at night from May to September, its almost like camping.
We don't see many owls, but we sure do hear them. As far as the owls go, we hear mainly Great Horned owls, Great Gray owls, Barred owls, and Saw-whet owls. Add to that, we often hear fox yapping, coyotes howling, snorting deer, grouse drumming, and an occasional howling gray wolf while we lay in bed at night.
We don't see many owls, but we sure do hear them. As far as the owls go, we hear mainly Great Horned owls, Great Gray owls, Barred owls, and Saw-whet owls. Add to that, we often hear fox yapping, coyotes howling, snorting deer, grouse drumming, and an occasional howling gray wolf while we lay in bed at night.
Great Horned Owls & Boreal Owls are commonly heard, & the former often seen, here in the foothills of the Colorado Front Range.
I was up in my treestand one day last deer season and had a Great Horned Owl sitting in a tree at about 100 feet away all morning just watching me. We watched each other for about 4 hours, until he saw a squirrel that he wanted. He took flight (flying adjacent to me), swooped down and grabbed that squirrel and landed in another tree about 130 feet on the other side of me and started ripping that squirrel apart to eat. He finally took what was left of his squirrel and flew away after about 10 minutes. It was nice to have something so interesting to watch, since I only saw a few does and a small 4 point that day. What a truly majestic creature, they definitely deserve our respect.
I love the way many owl species can rotate their heads so that they can see 360 degrees without moving their bodies. Their eyesight and other sensory gear at night is incredible. Talk about night vision. It's always interested me that the owl face and cat face have evolved in similar ways, for hunting. I have a poet friend who had a pet owl, a very small species, for many years.
Mso489, we have an abundance of owls here. In fact you can hunt the snowy owl, and I have a cookbook with recipes. Sane with lynx. I do like owls though. Weird birds, there's a boreal owl living in the neighbors chicken coop right now. I've seen a couple species during the day.
I love owls. I live in the city, so we don't see them often.
Early last fall, a buddy and I were hanging out on my back porch (4th floor) one night, when he pointed out a dark figure standing on the corner of roof of a neighboring house. I got up to get a better look, away from the porch light ... it was an owl, all right. This was a big one too; must have been over two feet tall. It was scoping out the alley for a rat snack, or maybe a squirrel. Very impressive sight.
Early last fall, a buddy and I were hanging out on my back porch (4th floor) one night, when he pointed out a dark figure standing on the corner of roof of a neighboring house. I got up to get a better look, away from the porch light ... it was an owl, all right. This was a big one too; must have been over two feet tall. It was scoping out the alley for a rat snack, or maybe a squirrel. Very impressive sight.
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