What’s better than listening to music?
Having the bedroom window open on a cool autumn night and hearing the soft melodic hooting of the Great Horned owl that lives in the woods adjacent to our apartment building.
They are magnificent. 20 inches in height. Wingspan 55 inches.
×•Ö·×™Ö¼Ö´×‘Ö°×¨Ö¸Ö£× ×Ö±×œÖ¹×”Ö´Ö”×™× … ×ֵ֨ת כָּל־ע֤וֹף ×›Ö¼Ö¸× Ö¸×£Ö™ ×œÖ°×žÖ´×™× ÖµÖ”×”×•Ö¼ ×•Ö·×™Ö¼Ö·Ö¥×¨Ö°× ×Ö±×œÖ¹×”Ö´Ö–×™× ×›Ö¼Ö´×™Ö¾×˜Ö½×•Ö¹×‘×ƒ
So God created … every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Gen. 1:21
November 11th, 2005 at 11:01 am
Karyn - How coincidental that you posted this! I get home about 10 pm on Thursday nights, and
last night when I got out of the car I heard a bird sound of some sort and thought certain
it must be an owl. I stood still in the dark for probably five minutes just listening and
when I went in to Rachel I told her I thought I could hear owls in the woods next to the
apartments. You don’t hear owls in downtown Dallas, so this was a welcome treat. Also
fun recently was the morning I got out of my car at the seminary to see a beautiful whitetail
deer trotting along the fenceline. I watched until it leaped the fence and disappeared into
the woods. Again, something one doesn’t see in Dallas very often!
November 11th, 2005 at 11:03 am
Also, we recently heard an interview with Daniel Radcliffe (aka Harry in the Harry
Potter movies) who has worked with owls quite a bit in filming the series. He said that,
while they look quite wise, they are actually not the smartest of birds - that training
them to fly from one place to another is phenomenally difficult.
November 11th, 2005 at 11:55 am
Get used to hearing him (actually, the resident bird guru says there is a pair). He will often hoot every few minutes all through the night.
As to the sagacity of owls. Perhaps their intellectual prowess is not proportional to their compliance with humans.
November 11th, 2005 at 8:33 pm
I like owls in particular, and all birds of prey in general (kindred spirits I guess….). Their coloration is incredible. Compare their “camoflage” with what you see in a sporting goods store, and I think God wins hands down.
Did you take those pictures yourself?
Owls might not be ‘trainable’, but you can acclimate them. Have your husband mimic the noise (hoo- hoo- taHoo: with a very hard H) and you might get the male to fly over for a better look at the gent who is flirting with his gal.
To send him away, or if you want him to quiet down, make a crow sentinel call: Kawww- Kawww- Kawww: trilling the w’s with a raspy sound deep in the throat.
You could also leave live mice out them to shack on. Place a 4×4 post in the ground, @5-6′ tall, with a pie plate nailed to the top. Place your mose in it and wait. If the mice insist on jumping out, tether their leg to the nail.
Have fun and keep us posted.
November 11th, 2005 at 8:48 pm
Owls, hawks, falcons, eagles… all are amazing to watch. I can sit for hours and watch a bird of prey in the air. When we drive along the highway on trips I always keep an eye peeled for hawks perched in a tree (or cell phone tower!).
We have had fun calling back and forth with the owl. Last year we had to be careful that people didn’t think we were crazy as we made “owl calls” to the woods from the car lot. No crow imitations here–Why in the world would I want to send him away?!
I wish the photos were mine. Not enough time to get out and do that kind of photography these days.
Another interesting bird story: about two weeks ago we had THOUSANDS of birds descend on the trees that encompass our apartment complex. Hundreds at a time would go in the stream and drink. They ate any seed or small nut they could find. They were so loud it sounded like a rainstorm. We must have been a pitstop on their journey.
November 12th, 2005 at 12:10 am
There are few things in nature as awesome as these birds of prey. I’ve had two “close encounters” that were among the most eeire and awesome experiences of my life.
The first occurred when I was walking alone on the trails of a nature preserve in the Adirondacks. A mother peregrine falcon divebombed me several times, her talons coming within inches of my head the first time. I had to hit the dirt. A ranger later told me there was a falcon nest along that part of the trail.
The other also happened in the Adirondacks. We had just reached the summit of Gothics Peak. Gothics has a sheer drop off on one side down to the Johns Brook Valley. On that day, a howling wind was sweeping up that cliffside. As I peered over the side, I saw a small speck coming up that wind current. As it grew larger I realized it was an osprey, a bird easily mistaken for an eagle at a distance, except for the different crook of its wing. To my amazement, the osprey rose up right in front of me and hovered on the current a few feet from my face. For a few seconds, we actually looked each other in the eye, then she flew up over my head and disappeared.
There is something awesome and wonderful when God’s own image encounters God’s wild handiwork.
November 12th, 2005 at 3:32 pm
The Foolish Sage’s first encounter would be a classic example for the applicability of a Crow’s Sentinel call!
And I have heard of people Hooting to owls, and then having the said owl want to attack them.
You could also try to use that call on any squirrels that have taken to open hostilities against you. In conjunction with crow silohuetes cut from roofing felt, it could be effective.
If that were to fail, hire Mercenary Micah and his Lego Ping Pong Ball Bazooka of Death.