Been a hoot owl howling outside my window . . . .

[Faulkner]

By the dark of the moon, I planted
But there came an early snow
Been a hoot-owl howling outside my window now
'Bout six nights in a row
She's coming for me, I know
And on Wildfire we're both gonna go


There's been a pair of barred owls raising a ruckus in the early morning hours around our place for the past several days. This morning they woke me up around 3:30 AM a hooting and hollering seemingly just outside our bedroom window.

I decided to get up early this morning just after sunrise, usually the time when they're going to roost, and give them a dose of their own medicine. I borrowed Mrs. Faulkner's iPhone with her bird calling APP and Bluetooth speaker. I gave them a few calls and it no time they flew in from the nearby creek bottom where they usually roost and the pair landed in a tree in my yard. They hooted back at me I was able to get a few pictures.

About 30 minutes into it Mrs. Faulkner came out on the front porch and asked, "what are you doing?!?"

"I'm keeping those owls up late so they'll be too tired to hoot around tonight," I replied.

She rolled her eyes at me and said, "you're probably just making them irritated for being in their territory and they'll come back tonight to run off the competition. Leave them alone and stop getting them riled up." She turned and went back inside obviously not understanding that this little interaction with the owls was a matter of principle.

Well, we'll just have to see if they're back tonight or not.

 

[Puller]

I've had the same problem with whippoorwills. Even with the A/C and the ceiling fan running I can hear them when they light on the top of the house and start whip-poor-willing away for hours at a time.

 

[5-Shot]

My Barred Owl story:

In '91 I moved to Central Oregon, a big logging area. Unfortunately, the industry was shutting down to save the region for the rare Spotted Owl. About 10 years later, when the town's huge mill had been closed and abandoned the Barred Owl, recognizing how neat a home Central Oregon would be, moved in and booted the Spotted Owl out. At the time the environmentalists simply shrugged their shoulders (I thank since, they're turned against the Barred Owl.)

Ed

 

[S42N8]

They're just being helpful in making sure you get up "owlly" in the morning.

And I've just accomplished my bad pun of the month a day... well, ahead of time.��

Please don't tell Daisy that one!

 

[6518John]

Randy—are your hummingbirds gone? I think I am going to bring in my feeders. Ours have long flown the coop and I bet are sunning in Mexico by now.

 

[Faulkner]

Randy—are your hummingbirds gone? I think I am going to bring in my feeders. Ours have long flown the coop and I bet are sunning in Mexico by now.

Funny you should ask . . . we've not seen any in nearly three weeks so I took ours in Saturday morning and cleaned 'em up for spring. Mrs. Faulkner and I were sitting in the kitchen bay that overlooks the deck Saturday evening as it was drizzling rain when we both watched a hummingbird come up to the window and look in for a few moments then fly off.

I looked over at her and said, "I'm not putting a feeder back out."

 

[M29since14]

Nice pics. Thanks! There used to be conciderable owl commotion going on around my home (fairly open pasture field west of it) but I don't hear them much lately. My hearing just continues to get steadily worse, so I'm not sure they're no longer there or not. Once in a while I would see them in the trees when I would come up the driveway just before dark, but not for a while now. Maybe they've relocated. I kind of miss them. They're impressive critters.

 

[lihpster]

When I was a yonker, my father raised 2 Great Horned Owl chicks after some idiot shot their mother. After we opened the cage to let them go, it took a couple of days before they stopped coming back to the cage, but they didn't go far. One hunted in front of the house and the other behind it. They would occasionally come back and sit in the old snag in the backyard and hoot for us to come out. Once, my brothers ran in the house, breathless, and finally managed to get out, "Mr. Harris's cat is sneaking up on the owl!!!" My father's response was, "Don't worry about the owl." A couple of days later, Mr. Harris stopped by to ask if we had seen his cat. Nope. Sure haven't.

 

[jrm53]

Faulkner those are great pictures thanks for posting them, to the fellow that has whippoorwills the last time I heard a whippoorwill we were in the Farmers Exchange in Bentonville Ar about 15 years ago and I heard one it was a guys ringtone on his phone. Jeff

 

[Rudi]

WHO doesn't like owls?

 

[len917]

When we lived in NJ we had owls in the woods behind the house and late evening 3 or 4 of them would take turns hooting at each other. Very creepy sound.

 

[oldbrownhat]

Don't get a lot of them here but I love the sound (nowhere as aggressive as what you experienced.) For the first time in a long time I heard one late last night in a tree near the back deck. I've also seen them on the security camera I have at my gate, as they head to the woods across the road.

Better wild animals than wild neighbors

 

[arjay]

We've had a pair here off and on for a few years.They sure are talkative at 3 am lol

 

[boykinlp]

They are so cute as babies.
Larry

 

[yaktamer]

There's been a pair of barred owls raising a ruckus in the early morning hours around our place for the past several days. This morning they woke me up around 3:30 AM a hooting and hollering seemingly just outside our bedroom window.

Makes me think of the scene in My Cousin Vinnie.

 

[OLDSTER]

We love it when the Great Horned ( and occasional Snowy ) owls move in here in the winter. They clean out the rabbits, and do a number on the squirrels. Good for the garden, but owners of little dogs need to be vigilant. They carry on a hoot of a conversation at night.

 

[CajunBass]

I remember once, some years ago, as my club was putting on a late drive (deer hunting with dogs) through a piece of marshey property, I caught a glimpse of movement in the trees. Magestically one owl appeared, then another, and another...must have been a dozen or so. They moved silently, ghostly in the late evening twilight. No real idea what kind of owls they were, but they were BIG. Great Barred Owls I guessed, but that's all it was, was a SWAG. A couple of the drivers said they'd flushed them from the trees as they came through.

I've heard it speculated that sights like that account for a lot of ghost tales. I don't know about that, but I do know a shiver went down my spine.

On the other subject, I miss Whip-poor-wills. When I was a kid, I fell asleep to their calls many a night. No AC in those days, so every window in the house was open. The last time I heard one was 10-12 years ago, when I was delivering newspapers at night. Pulled into a cul-de-sac, and heard one close.

Whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will...cut your wheat and take it to the mill,...we kids would sing along to the calls.

 

[oldbrownhat]

They are so cute as babies.
Larry

From the Random Photographs thread:

 

[NFrameFred]

Mrs. Faulkner and I were sitting in the kitchen bay that overlooks the deck Saturday evening as it was drizzling rain when we both watched a hummingbird come up to the window and look in for a few moments then fly off.

I have one in particular (gone for the season now) that does that when the feeder gets low. I have to believe that even that little bird brain takes notice and associates the humans who live behind the glass with the supply of nectar in the feeders on the deck.


Love hummers. One of life's many wonders.

 

[oldbrownhat]

...Love hummers. One of life's many wonders.

My gf in WA (and others there) has them overwintering at her place. I made heaters for the feeders which are controlled by a plug-in digital thermostat. She was astounded that they survived last winter, which was much colder than usual and dipped down to 5°. In the summer they go nuts in her garden, flitting around the crocosmia and other flowers she's planted for them. They also love flying through the sprinklers.

They really define living life on the edge.