backyard excitement

[white eagle]

sitting watching the backyard this morning with my wife and noticed some commotion in the pine trees saw a great grey owl and got to watch it for an hour or so
great excitement for my better half :lol:

[Tatume]

That's really cool. I like owls, and yours is even bigger than our great horned owl. Good going!

[richhodg66]

We have one that hangs around our property and we used to see him pretty regularly, but now that I think about it, haven't seen him in a while.

[Tatume]

We had a great horned owl that fed on the local guinea fowl. The guineas liked to roost in a particular tree. Every other morning or so, under the tree, there would be bird poop with a little white sac with beaks and claws in it, and one less guinea. This went on until the guineas were all gone, and then so was the owl. Never heard from him again.

[David2011]

I liked owls until a pair got into my hunting blind. They have to be among the filthiest animals on Earth.

[white eagle]

I have one using my deer stand on my hunting property
yep they are messy I was just telling my wife the story of it

[jsizemore]

We got a barred owl around the farm. She's my buddy for taking care of the abandoned guinea fowl. 3 to go.

[firefly1957]

The other morning i went out just as the sky lightened to dispose of one of the coons tearing up my bird feeder there were several horned owls and some coyotes making all kinds of racket it was rather neat to hear and really creepy at the same time.

[JBinMN]

Night before last I heard some "screaming" at about 4 AM. I went outside & listened a bit, because I had heard it thru the window and at first, thought it was some cats having a "date".

When I went outside I heard that "screaming" again and it would happen, then silence, then it would happen again a couple minutes later... I knew it was not cats...

My first thought after hearing it outside & getting a better ID of the noise was that one of the local cats had injured & perhaps cornered a rabbit. Then was playing with it a bit. But then I thought about it & with the spaces between the "screaming" I remembered we had a pair of owls hooting at one another near our house a couple of days back.

My guess is that it was the owl(s) that had tried to get a rabbit & maybe dropped it or missed a bit & it was seeking out the rabbit and everytime the rabbit was hit on or trapped it was "screaming" in pain.

Until finally the owl got it or it escaped, since for a good 20 minutes there was no more sound or "screaming" and I went inside.

Or.. It was a Friggin cat that got it...

I like the owl ending better... I like owls & I think they are pretty cool, but I absolutely despise cats... Unless they are "flat". Then they are fine.

I want to think it was owl(s) that did it.... At least that is how I am gonna think it happened...

Did I mention I really dislike cats...
;)

[jdfoxinc]

My wife wotks in an office park that had lots of cotton tails untill an owl couple built their nest in one of the trees. Now the only CTs left are the ones that learned to hide.

[AllanD]

I have lots of Cottontails, but I don't allow my two cats out because the neighborhood Red Tailed Hawk isn't too selective in his diet.

[Bazoo]

Plenty of owls round us. Screech owls are common here. As are barn owls, although I havent see one of those yet. Then there are those that hoot, but I dont see them and I cant identify by sound alone yet. Seen a great horned a few times. Pretty neat critters. They never bothered the cat either.

[Walks]

Many long years I was walking up a wide dirt road looking for a cutoff to a trail that lead to a good squirrel spot. It was just as the eastern sun was turning the sky pink.

A Great Horned Owl coasted across the road in complete silence. I stood in AWE for those 2 1/2 seconds & several more. It's wingtip almost touched my chest. The memory is as clear in my mind at this moment as if it was that same still morning. I later realized that OWL was why it was so quiet.

[Bazoo]

That is an awesome story, thanks for sharing.

[abunaitoo]

A while ago, there were two owls that would come out to hunt after the range closed.
They were in different parts of the range, but we could see them both from our "talking place" at the shooting line.
They would fly in circles, then dive down in to the bushes, tall grass.
Haven't seen them for a while.

[blackthorn]

Many years ago when my boys were 10 and 12, we were at my cabin on a lake here in BC. My oldest boy and I were out on the lake one evening fishing. It was still full daylight and the lake was dead calm. It looked like a mirror. If you looked across to the other side the reflection of the forest and the mountain on the far side was perfect. As we trolled slowly along, there came a Great Horned Owl coasting silently along just off shore. As we watched, it flew over to a stump that stuck up about three feet and folding its wings it landed on that stump. And that’s when things went south for the poor old Owl!! You see the stump he landed on was just a reflection of the real stump on shore. The Owl landed in the water about twenty feet off shore and of course he got all wet and couldn’t take off again. Some younger kids were playing around the shore and they saw what happened to the Owl. We could hear them saying they were going to help the Owl and I hollered for them to keep away from it. We started to row over to the Owl and it was my intention to push it to shore using the oar but the Owl did not wait for help, rather he spread his very impressive wings and sort of used them to propel himself to shore where he climbed up onto the real stump and waited for his feathers to dry enough so that he could fly. Now there was one ticked-off Owl! Probably embarrassed too LOL.

[kbstenberg]

David post #5 no way on owl messes. I had a porky spend the winter in my boxblind. Quills Dodo's yuk.

[mold maker]

I once left my old pickup sitting for several weeks. When I next opened the door, a frightened mama squirrel ran up my right arm, across my back and left arm getting out of dodge. I fixed the hole in the floor that day.
BTW
I boxed the litter and placed it under the deck of my neighbor's unused boat.

[redhawk0]

Many years ago when my boys were 10 and 12, we were at my cabin on a lake here in BC. My oldest boy and I were out on the lake one evening fishing. It was still full daylight and the lake was dead calm. It looked like a mirror. If you looked across to the other side the reflection of the forest and the mountain on the far side was perfect. As we trolled slowly along, there came a Great Horned Owl coasting silently along just off shore. As we watched, it flew over to a stump that stuck up about three feet and folding its wings it landed on that stump. And that’s when things went south for the poor old Owl!! You see the stump he landed on was just a reflection of the real stump on shore. The Owl landed in the water about twenty feet off shore and of course he got all wet and couldn’t take off again. Some younger kids were playing around the shore and they saw what happened to the Owl. We could hear them saying they were going to help the Owl and I hollered for them to keep away from it. We started to row over to the Owl and it was my intention to push it to shore using the oar but the Owl did not wait for help, rather he spread his very impressive wings and sort of used them to propel himself to shore where he climbed up onto the real stump and waited for his feathers to dry enough so that he could fly. Now there was one ticked-off Owl! Probably embarrassed too LOL.

ROFL....literally....this really cracked me up.

Thanx for sharing.

redhawk

[lightman]

Cool story! We had an Owl living in the neighborhood for a while. Have not heard him lately.