iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

Hoot Owl Convention

Started by WV Sawmiller, June 25, 2019, 06:09:17 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

WV Sawmiller

   Last night a couple hours after dusk I heard a strange gurgling call outside and my wife asked me what it was. I told her it was a hoot (Barred) owl. We have lots of them around here and often at dark or just before sunrise they will start calling back and forth to each other. It seems like there is one up every side holler and sometimes the conversations go on for several minutes. They have a very diverse vocabulary if you have never listened to them and they don't just hoot. I had trimmed the spring run-off and ditch in my back yard yesterday before dark and I removed a lot of cover and exposed a lot of frogs and snakes and such in the process. I know I accidentally killed at least one ring neck snake with my line trimmer and chased another one or two into the water. This morning about 2:30 am we were awakened by the most gosh-awful racket outside our window. It seems several owls had come to visit and they hooted, they gurgled, they chortled, and they made other unimaginable sounds. My wife had no idea what it was but said she heard a squealing so evidently one caught a baby rabbit (I saw one about 40-50 yards from there by my woodshed - the first in about 5 years since I got rid of the multi-flora roses on my property) or a field mouse. Becky went to the window and could see one big owl by the night light perched on a fence post about 20 yards from our window. It flew and she said it was huge and later worried if it might have been after 13 lb Sampson, my catfish treeing Rat Terrier. I think he is likely too big for them and he was safe in his dog house.

  I did not get a picture but what I really wish I could have gotten was an audio recording of them. If you have never heard a bunch of owls (I saw on Jeopardy the other night a group of owls is called a Wisdom or Parliament.) you just don't know what you are missing.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

Steve Crook

We used to get the owls going from time to time when we lived out on the west coast. It reminded me of the supposed jungle noises in the old Tarzan shows of the 60's. My better 1/2 with a memory informs me that Johny Weismuller was Tarzan in the old shows. Though you couldn't prove it by me.

btulloh

Good report, WV.  I never heard them that close where you could hear the details of their conversation.  I hear them back in the woods with the usual "Who cooks, who cooks, who cooks for yooouuuuuuuuuuu" but that's about it.  Sometimes I hear a screech owl and wish I hadn't.
HM126

barbender

I have some friends that lived in GA for a time. They said one Sunday in church, the pastor kept mentioning a "who da" in his sermon. They asked some GA friends after the service what a "who da" is. They really got to laughing as they explained it was "hoot owl"!😂
Too many irons in the fire

millwright

It seems like the last year or so we have a big bunch of them here  they are really vocal right before dark, and right at daybreak. It really upsets the crows in the area

WV Sawmiller

   The last couple nights they had a big powwow around midnight but fortunately it was further back in the woods and not right in the back yard.

   Crows hate owls and hawks and such and I have seen hundreds of them circling one raptor.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

ppine

In Nevada we great Great Horned Owls in the yard all the time. (GHOs).  I like to hear them late at night.  I sleep in the backyard sometimes, and there can be GHOs in the top of the tipi poles.  My dog runs up and down the fence chasing coyotes.  Sometimes the neighborhood donkeys are braying.  I use ear plugs. 
Forester

KEC

The squeals that you mentioned may be young birds recently out of the nest. They squeal to let the adults know where they are to feed them. One year I had young Great-horned Owls squealing behind the house at night and it took me a while to figure out what they were. Young Barred Owls have a similar squeal.

Magicman

I love to be sitting in the woods very early or late when the owls crank up their vocals, but it can also make the "skin crawl" on the back of your neck.  Nature at it's best.
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Texas Ranger

I probably told this story before, but,  sitting on a leaning tree stand early one morning when a great horned owl thought I must have been a critter of edible nature.  He swooped down and flared off when I got excited. I thought I was being attacked by the demon of the woods.
The Ranger, home of Texas Forestry

WV Sawmiller

   My older brother and I were fishing on the Suannee River near Old Town Fla one day and we spotted one on a live oak limb. I pitched a long rubber worm up there over a limb next to him and wiggled it up and down a couple of times. He bobbed his head then attacked it. I hooked him and pulled him into the river where he was floating on outstretched wings. He started flapping and got some air under him and broke my line and flew off with my worm. 
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

Peter Drouin

 

 

 

 

 
He gave a big hoot when this showed up.
A&P saw Mill LLC.
45' of Wood Mizer, cutting since 1987.
License NH softwood grader.

WV Sawmiller

  Great pictures. Thanks for sharing.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

Ron Scott

Yes, to great pictures.

Some of the West Virginia deep coal miners were excellent "owl hooters". That's how they communicated with one another in the mines while practicing for turkey hunting.
~Ron

WV Sawmiller

Ron,

   Yes, hooting like an owl is the typical way to locate a gobbler on his roost in the spring. A turkey just has to answer when an owl hollers before sunup After sunrise people use pileated woodpecker (Wood hen), crow and coyote calls. I have seen fired up gobblers answer car horns, dogs barking, and thunder drives them insane. When my son was about 16-17 they went turkey hunting and were late coming back (Usually if you are going to get one you get him right at sunrise when he flies off the roost). I figured they had shot one and were tracking it. When they showed up I asked "Where's the turkey?" Sean's buddy Josh said "He'd have come if he could". They said they were hunting near a pasture and a fired up gobbler would gobble every time a cow would moo. He would answer their hen calls but not come so they tried to sneak up on him. They'd stop and cluck and he'd answer but not come. Finally they got to where they could see him - in a farmer's pen. No wonder he would not come.  
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

KEC

Yesterday, at dusk, I had a red phase Screech-Owl  sitting in the entrance hole of one of the boxes I have for them in the yard. First red one in my yard and first I've seen in a long time. I've had Barred Owls come in when I imitated their calls. They'll hoot back and forth at you; it's a riot. One actually followed me some distance when I decided to hike back to my truck. 

WV Sawmiller

  I typically have been hearing the big old hoot owls at dusk and sometimes in the morning but yesterday just after sunrise a pair or more of screech owls set up a lengthy conversation. It was real neat to listen to their loud calls especially knowing how little they actually are.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

Autocar

Barred Owls in the spring when your waiting for that first tom turkey to gobble on opening morning nothing better in life  8).
Bill

KEC

Go to Utube and search "owl in christmas tree". A really neat story.

KEC

At ~3:00 am today I heard a screech owl so I opened a window and could hear the screech-owl in the back yard and a Great Horned Owl in the distance. I never tire of owls.

Al_Smith

The most amusing thing to watch is a murder of crows annoying a great horned owl or worse a red tail hawk .The red tail owns the skies during the day and big owl at night .They will enact revenge . ;D  

WV Sawmiller

   I have seen but never understood that. I bet I saw over 200 crows circling and cawing one day at my FLI place in N. Ala and right in the middle of the circling mass was a red tailed hawk. I would have feared for my life if I were surrounded by that many crows. The crows would swoop at him but I don't know if they were doing much damage. I don't know if the hawk survived or not. Blue jays will also give a hawk or owl fits. 

   Another common sight where I grew up was mockingbirds and even smaller songbirds chasing crows. I guess they were so much faster and more agile they could duck and dodge and the crow could not catch them.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

Al_Smith

I there are only a few crows the hawk will escape .Then as they scatter cawing away on level flight brer hawk is gaining altitude .It's only a matter of time before there are black feathers every where .Try as they might they can't out run him . 

Don P

When we had chickens and my wife would see a hawk she would caw for the crows, being mortal enemies if they were within earshot they would usually come to chase the hawk away.

Al_Smith

Crows are pretty smart .They would fly over at just above tree top level,about 110 feet .My good old Marlin goose gun picked them off  real easy .Then they raised the ceiling  to about 200 feet ,couldn't reach them .

Thank You Sponsors!