I haven't done a search yet...just thrilled to get the shot. I think it's a Screech Owl...anybody know??
Keith and I were out trying to find the property that his cousin just bought and we happened on an old cemetary...lots of old stones and huge treees...this guy was overlooking the whole thing.
I think it's a big eyed bird, and ur probably right about it's being a screech owl. I remember thinking it a small bird to make all that noise.
Nice addition to your day out. ~Blooms
Done some digging and I think it's a Barred Owl...the size and range match...it's too big for a Screech Owl. This owl was at least 20" long and our Screech Owls are smaller than that. This was a big owl without ear tufts.
It's supposed to be a good fisher, besides rodents and small mammals, and it was within sight of a 40 acre lake.
Really great shot!
MsC
It looks a little too big to be a Screech owl...but I could be wrong... Here is a pic of the lil screech we found and released.
Your owl is fantastic!!! GREAT PIC!!!! I LOVE IT
OOPS...the pic
The more I've dug, the more I think it's a Barred Owl.
melody - that is so neat!
Definitely too big for a screech owl. There were 6 of them hanging around the house a few years agp. Here is a shot I got of three of them in a live oak tree in the front yard.
I believe you're right, it's a Barred Owl. We have them here but they're rarely seen and only occasinally heard late at night. One flew onto the property at dusk one night and perched on a high pole...that was quite a thrill for us!
Hey Melody
If you ever get over to the Nature Station in the LBL they have a few owls there that have been hurt and can't be released to the wild, you could take the picture over to them and one of the naturalist could ID it. I agree I think it's a Barred Owl we have a bunch of owl around here you can hear them at night but rarely do you ever see one. Nice Picture!
Here is a pic of the one at the Nature Station ... naturally I did the the name of it in the picture, that would be like handy.
Later
Dave
Howdy neighbor!
Welcome to the best spot on the web!
I've been to the Nature Station many times...several times to the Hummingbird Weekend. I also take out of town visitors over when I have them....I especially like the coyote feeding days...the kids howl and the coyotes howl back...great fun.
I love native plants and wildlife....you'll see me around most everywhere in DG...also, check out the Roundup Forum...we're getting together over on Lake Barkley again this year...you are welcome to come too!
I'll have to look into, my big hangout is over on Reelfoot Lake I love that place. We go to the Nature Station and the Homeplace about evert time we have company. Then go up to Pattie's.
I 'm big into native plants and go on the rare but fun plant finding trip on occasion, either to the LBL, Wickliff-Ballard area, Reelfoot or up around Garden of the Gods. Got a little work to do today then it'd off to Paducah for the artwalk in Lowertown and Paducah after Diner.
When are getting together on Barkley .... guess I should check that thread. I was debating on going to Kentucky Lake tomorrow but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.
Dave (the other one)
I belong to the Highland Rim Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society, and I can definitely tell you that it's a barred owl. You were lucky to see it, and if you heard it, you would get a big laugh. It sounds more likes it's "whooping" than "whoooing".We have many "owl prowls" in our bird club, plus we see the owls close up and alive in some of our wild life rescue programs. I love to see owls-they are such interesting birds.
Thanks for the positive ID...I'm debating going back to see if I can get a better shot...do they tend to have favorite perches, or was this just dumb luck?
They do have favorite areas, Melody, but I'm not sure you saw one. It would just be lucky to see him again-but what the hey-give it a try!
a memorable shot.
Yes, Definately a Barred Owl, One of my Favorites among the owls! I've got a few pics of one myself, But, Thats a really nice pic that you got! They remind me of baby seals because of the coloring plus the big dark eyes and round head. If you go back again early morn or early evening, You might see him again, But that depends on if that was his perch or hunting area. We would see the same Barred Owl in a particular spot every weekend for quite some time in one area where we use to go, But, In a couple other area's that we had seen one, It was just that one time and they had moved on. They make the neatest sounds, Especially if there's a family together!
I hope it 'was' his hunting area and that you 'do' get to see him again and congrats on the nice pic you got!
Heres a pic of the Barred Owl I had seen..It's over-exposed as this pic was taken almost in darkness and I didn't have the cam set right ....
http://www.wtv-zone.com/irislynx/Owls/Owl-1.jpg
This message was edited Aug 17, 2005 3:45 AM
Iris-I love that picture of him(or her) in the snow! It is so hot here that looking at that snow is a pleasure.
Great picture Iris! We plan to go back and see if he/she is in the area...just havent had the time...it's waaaay out in the boonies... and we've been covered up at work.
Here's a picture of one of the tombstones that was in the cemetary...most of the stones were set there before 1920...and lots were before 1900.
Thanks LGW, At this time of year, That snow looks good to me too, We've been having some unusual heat waves this year!! A lot of times I go to a particular area and usually have quite a bit of luck seeing and hearing the owls, One time though, It was pretty cold and the roads were icy to the sides, It was about 5:30 in the morning, And I made the mistake of pulling to the side of the road to try and get a shot, Well, I got stuck really good in the ice, No cell phone, About a half mile from the nearest house and it still kind dark out! Not fun at all!! Thank God some people were driving by that helped and called my DH, He came to help and between him and the others, I finally got my car out!! ( Hubby just rolled his eyes when he first came as he knows how I am about hunting for that 'Perfect Picture', Which I never get!)
I'm really carefull now though about certain situations when hunting for photo's to take!
I've had Screetch Owls nest in the boxes in my yard, And have had Long Eared Owls, Sawheet owls, And Great Horned Owls come through the yard, But have never had a Barred Owl come through, I try to attract them, And put Owl Boxes up for them, but have never had them here, But, When I go out owling, That is the owl that I see the most of.
....Thanks Melody, I hope you have good luck when you do get a chance to go.
That tombstone is really something, It's amazing to see all the detail that was put into it!!
Iris-I believe you may qualify as an "owl lady"! One of the cutest things I've seen in the last few years in the bird world was two baby screech owls peeping out of a wood duck box opening near our pond. I wish I could have gotten a good picture of them, but try as I might, they were never out when I could take their picture. We have great-horned owls that sit on our deck railing at night. When they call, it wakes us up, but we don't mind as they are so special. My husband and I believe that our lives are really enriched by all the animals and birds on our farm, even though they can be inconvenient sometimes!
Definitely a Barred Owl & what a GORGEOUS pic. Worthy of submitting to any number of nature mags!!!
The Barred Owl seems to be the Number One owl around here. I hear them year-round - even during the day sometimes - & during the mating season or when they have fledging youngsters, it sounds like a Tarzan movie going on in the woods - lol!!
The only other owls I've encountered here in Culpeper, VA, so far have been one sighted Barn Owl & hearing the occasional Great Horned Owl. Am very surprised that I've neither seen nor heard any Screech Owls, as used to see & hear them constantly when I lived in NY. Would have thought they'd be very abundant down here in the middle of nowhere - lol!!
LGW, I wish you could have gotten a picture too of the Owlettes! I have a Screech Owl that stays in the Nest Boxes that I have around for them, And just this spring/summer, I had gotten one of those 'Infrared Nest Cams' ( Which works really good!) But, The Screech Owl had a habit of moving from one box to another and though I had set the cam up, I did it too late and didn't get any 'Inside' photo's before it had moved on for the summer, Hopefully, I'll have it all set up and ready for this fall or next year when he/she comes back again. Got to use the cam for a lot of other nesting birds though and it's great to be able to monitor there habits day and night without bothering them at all. Right now i have the cam set up out in the back yard and have been watching MaMa Coon and her three youngsters coming to eat.
I'd love to have Great Horned Owls sitting on my deck at night! You are so lucky! Any chance you might get a night shot of them??? They could call here all night and I wouldn't mind at all either, We feel the same as you and your DH, Wildlife is very enriching!! ~ I have a site that has a Nest cam which shows the progress of parent Screech Owls and Owlets, If you intersted at taking a look here's the addy, They also have a link that shows another cam on nesting Barred Owls .....
http://eis005.its.utexas.edu/owl/
Heres the one for the Barred Owls...
http://www.owlcam.com/
BM, The Barred Owl makes such distinguished sounds, Especially with Fledlings! I think you hit it right on the button when you said it sounded like a tarzan movie, It's so funny!!!
One of the reasons you might not be seeing any Screech Owls is because of the Barred Owls you have in the area ( Barred Owls eat Screech Owl when they can, Thats what I read anyway)
This message was edited Aug 17, 2005 10:48 PM
I love that owl cam! How precious is that! Thanks so much for sharing all the info with me. I'm so glad to know that there are other people around who feel like my husband and I do about animals. I often meet people who just see them as a nuisance-they are missing so much in their lives. Although deer can be a real nuisance here, we have surrounded everything we don't want them to eat (like my formal gardens) with deer netting. I have it strung on bamboo poles 6' high, and they don't try to push it over even though the fence is just nylon. We have deer lay 5 to 10 feet from our house at night, and often we have does and fawns lay down and sleep under the trees around our house in the daytime. They know we're suckers for their big brown eyes and gentle ways so they let us get very close to them. Two years ago, I had a red fox bring her two pups up on the porch with me sitting there. What a treat that was-they just sniffed around and went on their way. We spend way too much money on food for all the wild animals that live on our farm, but we have no children, so they're like children to us. We've had raccoons and their babies this spring and early summer, but I haven't seen them in the daytime recently. Keep me posted on what your seeing-I love to read about animal sightings. Linda
That may be it, because we definitely have more than a full quota of Barred Owls here!! Once in awhile a Great Horned will be heard, but definitely no little Screetchers.
LGW, I'm glad you liked the cam, And your 'Quite Welcome!'
I have deer that do, Each year, Eat some of my Hosta, And a woodchuck that does wreck havoic a bit here, And many squirrels and chipmunks that try to over-stuff themselves at the feeders, And though it's quite annoying sometimes, I do still enjoy seeing them! I surely dont have to travel anywhere to see an abundance of wildlife and that makes me feel kinda good, Especially knowing that there is usually always a once in a life time show going on somewhere around the yard almost every day.
It's so great that the deer let you be so close to them and that they sleep that close to your house under the trees! And the fawns must be such a beautiful sight!( They know where it's safe!) Nice to know that they don't even attempt to go through the netting you have set up, They must be petty content to eat whats available outside the mesh.
I would have loved to have seen the Red Fox with the babies! What a great sight that must have been to see!!
What kind of food do you get for the wildlife?? They have stores in my area ( Most likely your area too) That have fruit specials, Fruit thats a bit over-ripe ect at low prices, Also, A lot of the restaurants have food thats thrown out everyday ( people not finishing there plate, end pieces of fruit/bread ect.) and if you checked around, I'm sure you'd find that they would be happy to give you the extras that would be thrown out or compacted, It would save a lot of money on feeding as it would all be free.
I'll have to up-date you on my recent sightings when I get a chance ( Kinda tired to write right now) I have been painting the house and doing yard work during the day, and re-doing the inside of the house at night so I don't spend a lot of time on DG lately, When I do , It's usually in the wee hours of the morning and I just answere a few posts and then go to bed. But, I'll catch back up with you.
BM, Yes, I bet it is. When people go 'Owling' They always do the 'Screech' Owl call first, then the Barred, Then the Great-Horned so as not to scare off the smaller species of owls in the area by using the call of one of the larger ones.
Funny (or not, depending on your viewpoint) story about doing owl calls:
A friend of mine told me that when he was in college, a friend of his took a recording of Great Horned Owl calls into the woods one evening hoping to lure one into view. Unfortunately, this "rocket scientist" did this during the nesting season, & not soon after he began playing the tape, not only had he managed to lure 2 into view, but they nearly scalped him & chased him clear out of the woods, running like a screaming madman - lol!!!
Breezy-your friend got a real lesson in owl calling, didn't he? lol
I had one attack me years ago because I inadvertently walked under her nest. Not fun-but what's a Mama to do when strangers threaten?
BM, Great Horned Owls can be 'Quite Dangerous', Especially at a time when they are nesting or have chicks! I've heard quite a few scarry stories involving Great Horned Owls.
...LGW, That must have been a shock at the time she attacked! Did you get hurt or was it a warning attack?
I had a Red Tail Hawk attack me once, I was in the Garden Trail ( I call it that because there are shrubs on one side and shrubs on the other and a small stone path in-between) Anyways, I heard her squawling, And felt her 'Don't know if it was the breeze of how close she was or the talons barely touching, But felt it right across the top of my head!! I ducked down and ran right out of the trail! The only thing I could come up with is that there must have been a fledgling somewhere in the shrubs and she was trying to protect it from me.
Barred Owls are common as pig tracks around here. We call them "Eight-hooters" Hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo, hoo-aaw. Some a are lazy, though, and often leave off the hoo-aaw or some of the hoos. Great photo.
The great horned owl just grazed my head a couple of times with her talons. Fortunately, she didn't have her talons balled like a fist and she wasn't trying to claw me. She could have done a real number on my head! We feed the deer shelled corn in the winter, and almost everything else loves black oil sunflower seeds. I grow lots of shrubs for the berries, seed heads, etc for birds and other animals. My husband and I cook pancakes every Saturday morning for the crows (I know this is ridiculous-lol), and they are sitting in the trees waiting when we throw their pancakes out. We tear them in bite size pieces and they actually stack up two or three pieces and carry them away. We draw the line at providing syrup. lol I also feed the skunks, opossums, raccoons, chipmunks,rabbits and any other thing that comes by small pieces of bread with peanut butter. We have a large orchard, and the animals get almost all of our apples, pears, and plums. If we don't cover the grapes, blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries, they eat them too- so we usually cover them. My husband even gathers fruit from our trees and puts it on our trails through our woods. We've cut two miles of trails through our woods, and he leaves food out for them there. We also provide salt for the deer and have found other animals and even birds seem to like it too.
It sounds like you are really working hard at your house, Iris. Stop and rest every now and them and sit and watch the birds and other animals. That will give you a little rest!
Wow LGW, Thank God it was warning strikes from her!
I do the same as you, I plant shrubs that feed the birds and animals, So instead of having a nicely landscaped yard of flowers, I have shrubs for the birds and wildlife. Pancakes for the crows?? LOL! It may sound silly to others, but, Not to me, I've actually made plates of food that I take out and put onto the platform feeders for the birds/animals to eat. We have grapes, blackberries. Currant, Blueberries, Rasberries, Elderberry, And crab apples. And the birds get about 95% of it.
Sounds like you have quite a bit of land and you've made some nice walking trails, How lucky you are, Thats so nice to have! Been working to get things done here, But, Theres always something that catches my eye and it's hard to resist watching, So I do take a few moments here and there to view the activity. Today, I seen that the Red Squirrel has come back, He/she has been gone for a couple months, But today, He/She's back, And looks as healthy and shiny as could be!! Some say grey Squirrels and Red Squirrels wont get along together, but, They get along fine here. I'm going to put a salt block out for the critters around here, If yours enjoy it, Hopefully mine will too.
Mel, that tombstone is incredible...the detail and the imagery. Do you have more pictures?
I've just GOT to go back! We were in a hurry and trying to find the property that his cousin bought...250 acres with a 40 acre lake and 6500 foot house...(and 6 donkeys) finally found it, but the gate was locked....the property looked like a treasure trove of PF pictures and wildlife. Heat indexes have been in excess of 110 this week...gonna try after things cool a bit...supposed to only be in the high 80's Monday...that will be a welcome relief (it was 86 last night at 10:30)
Tell me about it Mel! I was push mowing my front yard last night with the heat index at 106. I can't wait until it cools down. This is like living in an oven-more accurately a steam room!!
