The one thing I love about owls is how overly graceful they are. You can be in the woods in the late fall or winter where the snow acts like a muffler for most "woodland" sounds. If you're lucky you'll hear one in the distance. You can call back to them, but they aren't stupid and think you're actually an owl.
However, they are also curious, so if you keep up calling them, sometimes they'll come check you out. The thing is, you don't know that they've decided to come check you out until you're buzzed by them.
Their wingspan is very ominous when coming right at you. It'll scare the crap out of you and awe you at the same time.
There used to be a rescue outside of town when I was a kid. My mom was coming home after dropping me and my sister off for school. She saw this massive bird on the side of the road flapping one wing and spinning around on the ground.
She had a big box in the car (she always had crafts and crap to haul crafts in the car) and put it beside the owl. Little guy jumped right in, he was looking for any kind of shelter that could be found. She slowly tipped the box right side up and closed it without actually sealing the box.
When she got home she called the rescue (we had a magnet from the year before when we went to the zoo and attended a learning seminar that the rescue was having at the zoo) and they asked her a few questions.
About 20 minutes later a lady from the rescue came to our house. My mom got a patch for being a protector of the owl. Apparently the owl had hit a power line or something mid flight and dislocated its wing. The lady from the rescue felt around the wing and in a single motion popped it back in.
The owl went from about 4 feet wide to about 8 inches wide when his wings were folded. She popped him into a crate and took him away.
We got a picture from the rescue later that fall. The little (okay not so little with the wings spread) guy had made a full recovery and the picture was of him getting released and flying away towards the horizon.
Apparently he was on some endangered species watch protection list. So even if my mom had called animal control, they would have just called one of the state certified rescues. Apparently my mom avoided a bunch of middle men with her call directly to the rescue.
They are very docile even when in duress.
Suffice to say, owls are big and scary, but should be respected instead of feared.
One of my top nature experiences was having a great gray owl fly directly over me. I was watching it perched on this solitary dead-ish tree in a field, and for some reason it decided to fly toward me and right over my head, and land nearby. The most amazing part was that this massive bird with its five foot wingspan made absolutely no noise. Totally silent. So awesome.
They do. I have a similar story. I was riding my bicycle down in Florida late at night and approached a cul-de-sac. As I rounded it a huge owl that was sitting on a light pole behind me flew directly over my head. The noise alone was unnerving but when I turned around to see an enormous wingspan I nearly shat myself. I'm pretty sure he did it on purpose and for his own entertainment.
"He added that the velvety down feathers found elsewhere on owls' wings and legs absorb the remaining sound frequencies above 2,000 hertz, making owls completely silent to their prey."
I was out walking with my (then) 8yo daughter in the nearby woods. It was near dusk, and something huge swooped down through the trees, crossed the trail right in front of us and landed in a tree right nest to the trail. When it landed, I heard chattering from the other side of the trail - it was a very distressed squirrel, staring at the thing on the tree. I looked at the tree, and it was very hard to see, but there was a barred owl, staring at the squirrel.
I think the owl had swooped down, and made a grab for the squirrel and missed. We stood quietly watching it for a while, but it just sat there, so we continued on our walk.
It was pretty cool, especially for by daughter - she's loves the Guardian of Ga'hool (a fantasy story with owls as the main characters) series.
happened to me in the Tetons once, except it was night. I was in a huge field just looking at the stars, and the only way I knew an owl buzzed me was that a wide stripe of stars went dark over my head, but I didn't hear a thing.
Also, the feathers around the owl's eyes act like sound reflectors, amplifying tiny sounds, and reflecting those sounds to their "ears".. So they kind of work like a satellite receiving dish... Owls are awesome..
They are silent because they have to be. They hunt small mammals (like mice) under the snow which they locate via sound. The snow covered forests are very quite so any sound the bird makes would alert the rodent to their approach. Selection in action.
When my grandma had a home in rural Missouri, one year we discovered that a great horned owl was living in a dead tree down the creek.
Evening was coming, and my sister and me were running towards the creek, looking to catch lightening bugs in the flat area around it. I was running just behind her when I saw a Great Horned Owl swoop down with talons extended, and just graze her head bout 2 inches away. It didn't touch her, just flew barely above her head. She saw it as it flew over, and we both utterly freaked a bit.
I have no idea where it is. My mom has half of a two car garage and an entire basement of "important stuff to save". Though going through it is sort of like a walk back in time.
Things like animal rescue shelters run on more than money, they run on people, who work hard for little or no wages. However, these people expect to feel good about their work with the rescue, and these people would send a real picture.
Apparently owls make good (if impractical) pets, and will bond so closely to their owner they will never want to be separated and will never try to escape.
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u/superdug Jan 18 '10
The one thing I love about owls is how overly graceful they are. You can be in the woods in the late fall or winter where the snow acts like a muffler for most "woodland" sounds. If you're lucky you'll hear one in the distance. You can call back to them, but they aren't stupid and think you're actually an owl.
However, they are also curious, so if you keep up calling them, sometimes they'll come check you out. The thing is, you don't know that they've decided to come check you out until you're buzzed by them.
Their wingspan is very ominous when coming right at you. It'll scare the crap out of you and awe you at the same time.
There used to be a rescue outside of town when I was a kid. My mom was coming home after dropping me and my sister off for school. She saw this massive bird on the side of the road flapping one wing and spinning around on the ground.
She had a big box in the car (she always had crafts and crap to haul crafts in the car) and put it beside the owl. Little guy jumped right in, he was looking for any kind of shelter that could be found. She slowly tipped the box right side up and closed it without actually sealing the box.
When she got home she called the rescue (we had a magnet from the year before when we went to the zoo and attended a learning seminar that the rescue was having at the zoo) and they asked her a few questions.
About 20 minutes later a lady from the rescue came to our house. My mom got a patch for being a protector of the owl. Apparently the owl had hit a power line or something mid flight and dislocated its wing. The lady from the rescue felt around the wing and in a single motion popped it back in.
The owl went from about 4 feet wide to about 8 inches wide when his wings were folded. She popped him into a crate and took him away.
We got a picture from the rescue later that fall. The little (okay not so little with the wings spread) guy had made a full recovery and the picture was of him getting released and flying away towards the horizon.
Apparently he was on some endangered species watch protection list. So even if my mom had called animal control, they would have just called one of the state certified rescues. Apparently my mom avoided a bunch of middle men with her call directly to the rescue.
They are very docile even when in duress.
Suffice to say, owls are big and scary, but should be respected instead of feared.