Owl problems

[harveyhorses]

This has been going on for about 4 years. The neighborhood owls have decided our front yard is their 'get-together' spot. I DO mean get together. About 6 or 8 of them. Let me tell you they are LOUD, and obvious:eek:
We had major upheaval in the form of a new septic system, they don't mind. They start at about 2 and continue till almost dawn.
It only happens 2 or three times a year, usually when the windows are open:yes:
Anyone got Owl-be-gone, or other rid-an-owl ideas?
Functioning on about 3 hours sleep.

[goodhors]

Distraction noises might help, leave the radio on, run a fan in the window or wear ear plugs. Not sure what time you need to get up in the morning, because ear plugs might help mask the alarm. I find the running fan covers a LOT of morning noise on days I sleep in.

We use the cheapy construction ear plugs, and they do mask the "noise" factor when working. You can talk and hear with them, but background noise is really reduced. They are rated for high noise protection, better than the ear muff styles.

Sorry the owls are at your house, we love them here, talking at night. We do have a local pair that hunt in winter, talk to each other. The BIG owls make different sounds, so we usually only hear them when migrating or in winter when they come down from the north because of severe cold.

Summers we never hear them. Perhaps yours are pairing up for the season? You could send them over here anytime.

[Thomas_1]

We have barn owls, tawny owls, little owls on the farm.

We love them..... Love to see them this time of year when it doesn't get dark till after 10pm and it's light by 4am so they're out in daylight hunting for their young.

They don't half keep the vermin down. They're an absolute boon on the farm and take a mass of rats, young rabbits, mice, voles etc etc.

They do "talk" to each other but to be honest where we live, it's about the only noise we ever have ..... well this time of year, there's a lot of lambs baa'ing and so we're pretty much used to it and NOTHING keeps me awake!

[harveyhorses]

Oh it sounds like they are 'pairing up' :lol: all the reseach I have done says they get it done (that sounds rude) Jan. or Feb. They are Great Horned, and while I do really love them around they are pretty darned scary. I had one smack into my windshield once, and picked it up and drove home with it to take care of it:eek: it was only stunned and by the time my poor brother had found nothing broken felt it twitch and told me to open the door FAST. Then lectured me about putting it in the back seat. I should of course put it in the trunk. :yes:
We can sit in our yard at night and count how many we can hear, it was 18 at the highest count. I am going to try and tape them tonight, it's usually two or three nights running and then they come back in late summer.
O.K. I have to say it, please please forgive me
They are having a Hootanny. (maybe nobody will notice that)

[Alagirl]

Oh it sounds like they are 'pairing up' :lol: all the reseach I have done says they get it done (that sounds rude) Jan. or Feb. They are Great Horned, and while I do really love them around they are pretty darned scary. I had one smack into my windshield once, and picked it up and drove home with it to take care of it:eek: it was only stunned and by the time my poor brother had found nothing broken felt it twitch and told me to open the door FAST. Then lectured me about putting it in the back seat. I should of course put it in the trunk. :yes:
We can sit in our yard at night and count how many we can hear, it was 18 at the highest count. I am going to try and tape them tonight, it's usually two or three nights running and then they come back in late summer.
O.K. I have to say it, please please forgive me
They are having a Hootanny. (maybe nobody will notice that)


HAHAHAHA throw some mice on the grill! sounds like your place is the IT place! :lol:

[Nes]

:lol: They are great horned owls!? They are LOUD!

I wish we had owls though :)

Can you borrow a neighbour's collie? That may gently convince them to move on to a new spot - I'd send you mine they are excellent at geese, sea gulls and pidgeons :)

[Bluey]

I could not imagine who would have problems with...owls?

They generally are not that many around. We have several and they do hoot-hoot many times thru the night, but I don't even notice it and definitively don't consider it noise pollution.
I can see where more than a few may become a little annoying.;)
One took care of some pest pigeon in the barn, all what was left was a few feathers.:)

Have you tried hanging around some of those big plastic owls?
They may be scared of them, nothing else around here is.:lol:

[theoldgreymare]

For the benefits they offer, I say be a gracious hostess and let them use your yard for their gatherings if it's only a few times a year.

[JSwan]

Oh - I would be so thrilled to have owls so close!

We've got several species here, but they hang out in the riparian buffer not around the house. So soothing... except for the occasional screaming. Sounds like a woman being murdered. :lol:


I'll trade you your owls for my rooster, Chucky. He starts crowing at 4am right outside my bedroom window.

[Daydream Believer]

That is so funny! I've never heard of owls having a gathering place. I heard one the other night not far away.

Jessie..Chucky would be stew at my house crowing at 4 am!

[harveyhorses]

Sounds like a woman being murdered.

Yep those lovely hooo hooo, turns ugly especially at 2 am in the tree 15 feet from my bedroom window. I admit to having peeled myself off the ceiling more than once.
I do worry about my cats a little, but the cats do seem to have some respect.
We did find a dead one last fall after one of these get togethers. :(
Prompted a friend to suggest they were having a family reunion that had gone bad.
Now that I am no longer sleep deprived I will acknowledge how lucky I am to be owl central. I am going to try some high-tech stuff, a friend has a motion activated video camera that I want to set up, but it is so random that they do this...
I tried asking our extention agent if he knew anything about owl behavior. NO. (Idjit.)

P.S. JSwan you can keep Chucky, my grandfather many many moons ago had fighting cocks, which instilled a lifelong fear of roosters.

[MistyBlue]

I *wish* I had owls. I hear them once in a while...but not often. I've got tons of other raptors...not many owls at all. :no: LOVE owls...so cool. I love watching them fly close by...completely silent. Stealth fliers...very cool. Nothing like the 4 dingbat crows who live on the cell tower near my house. Those things are noisy as heck...both verbally and flying. "woosh, woosh, woosh" every time they buzz me when I'm outside.

JSwan...if you're lucky maybe an owl will get Chucky?

[lorilu]

Before you do anything too obvious, remember that owls, like all birds of prey, are protected under FEDERAL law.

You are lucky to have them.

Perhaps run the sprinkler?

L

[harveyhorses]

One of the neighbors put one of the plastic owls out for his garden, it was destroyed one morning, ripped to ribbons. :eek:

They don't do much for our mole population, but there are no field mice to be found.

I don't actually want to 'do' anything, just wanted to see if anyone knew something to discourage them. There have been owls in this area for 40 years, and I mean LOTS of owls. a dozen that we knew of growing up. Just weird behavior I thought. I think it might be a territory dispute since there are so many of them around. I should not take them for granted, I will enjoy them.

[Alagirl]

you know what, since it's only a few days every year, get yourself a bottle of the good stuff, sleep should be no problem afterward! ;)

[JB]

2-3 times a year, that's all? Count your blessings that they have chosen your place :)

[Lori B]

Harveyhorse, if it sounds like a woman being murdered, I think it could be a barn owl. They make a variety of unnerving sounds. Sorry for your loss of sleep, but I am very jealous of your owl neighbors. Can you see them in the evenings, or do you just hear them?

[sk_pacer]

SOunds like a woman being murdered? Never heard that sound from owls, but have heard it from cougars.

Horned owls WILL take your cats without batting an eye. They also take skunks and festoon the trees with the stinking remains. Several years ago, smell of skunk was gag you strong on the yard, and got worse as I walked towards the shop from the barn. Owl had caught a skunk, eaten part of it and draped the remains in a tree for a snack. It was pretty gross even after the owl ate the rest of the skunk because the musk had permeated the tree. Nasty nasty.

[sid]

Owls are so cool. I love it when I see them...and they've done a great job keep pigeons out of my indoor.

"Screaming like a woman being murdered" = Screech Owl. Small little things, but they'll make the hair stand up on the back of your neck when you hear them.

I have great horned that I hear sometimes and have also had a barn owl visit (they're very cute to look at). Year ago, when I heard the geese raising hell at around 10 p.m. on the pond, I turned on the floods and saw a great horned, standing waist deep in water. It had drown a mallard. It was too heavy to carry off so she (I presume a parent feeding young), would dismember a part of it and fly off, only to return about 20 minutes later to repeat. In the a.m. I found only one duck feather.

It was pretty awesome to watch her fly in -- huge thing. Kind of creepy, but cool.

[harveyhorses]

I am begining to wonder if it might be a territory dispute between breeds, or whatever. The first time it happened we ran outside and right back in because there were two great horned ON our sidewalk, but from the descriptions of sounds we have more than one variety. I AM lucky, just keeping the cats in.
the one we found dead was a screech. I think.
Now if they would send out announcments "We will be converging on the Harvey residence at 2:10 am on the 18th of May" I would be delighted.

[2DogsFarm]

I'll trade you your owls for my rooster, Chucky. He starts crowing at 4am right outside my bedroom window.

Maybe Chucky could go "visit" the owls?
I'm sure they woudl ove to meat him ;)

[Mozart]

OP, you don't, by any chance, have a lightning bolt scar on your forehead do you? ;)

[harveyhorses]

Nope, but I do have a wand (really, from Olivans)
I took my nieces to the midnight release, complete with costume contest. They thought they would embarrass me, HA, I went as McGonnagle, (SP)came in third. :winkgrin:

[Alagirl]

Nope, but I do have a wand (really, from Olivans)
I took my nieces to the midnight release, complete with costume contest. They thought they would embarrass me, HA, I went as McGonnagle, (SP)came in third. :winkgrin:


'splains it all! Now toss Hedwig some goodies and call it a....night? :lol::cool:

[Chief2]

I have a friend, born and raised in NYC, who went to a music camp in the woods of New Hampshire. As he was jogging up the dirt road to the camp one evening, a screech owl let loose above him. Scared the daylights out of him, and he says he never ran so fast for the cabin. Sounded to him like someone was being murdered right in the woods next to him. Cured him of his evening jogging habit up there for a long time!

We have a pair of Great Horned owls that spend the winter here each year. In the evenings they call to each other across the meadow next door, and it is lovely to hear. We also have barn owls, which have a lovely song. We run two table fans in the bedroom, and the a/c in the summer to kill extraneous noise so we can sleep. Perhaps that would help the OP in her quest for a good night's sleep. Good luck with your owls.

[merrygoround]

Hey Harveyhorses, can I have some. We have one or two along with hawks, kestrals, and peregrines, and an occasional eagle, I just love anything that might possibly munch pigeons.

[LoveMyArabians]

The ONLY reason I can think of as to why you have so many owls is there is an excess of food there.

Do you have a lot of garbage around or near your property? A garbage dump/landfill perhaps? Garbage attracts rats/rodents, rats are a favorite food.

Great Horned owls will eat smaller owls... they will not "gather" with them... the Great Horns also eat the Barred Owls which are fairly large in comparison to the screech owl for example.

Normally if there are many Great Horned Owls in an area, all other owls move out or quite far away.

I have never heard of anything like this except around large garbage dumps or landfills.

Just my 2¢
Cindy

One other thought is maybe the tree near your home contains a Great Horned nest... they can have 2, 3, 4 or sometimes more offspring. Maybe when they are the loudest is when the fledglings are leaving the nest?

[Waterwitch]

We have a pair of barred owls that live on our property - they have quite a repertoire of calls, some of which sound very simian. They like to hang out in the pine trees at the top of our drive - really cool to pick apart the owl pellets they leave there. We often see them at dusk.

We also have a Great Horned but we only hear the quiet "hoo-hoo" - have never seen him/her.

[Beasmom]

I love owls! When my cousin was still alive and I'd visit the ranch, there was a pair of them that hunted near the ranch house. I'd hear them at night as I lay in bed trying to sleep. Always a problem for some reason at the ranch. I could. Not. Sleep. There. Unless I was exhausted from a gather or branding, and even then....

Back to the owls.

I'd jump out of bed to catch a glimpse of one sitting on the mercury vapor lamp in the barnyard. Sometimes I'd see one swoop by on silent wings. I considered the owls good omens and enjoyed their calls. I also loved to hear the coyotes singing down by the river. Eerie & beautiful.

We also have the little burrowing owls. Very cute!

[Chief2]

The ONLY reason I can think of as to why you have so many owls is there is an excess of food there.

Do you have a lot of garbage around or near your property? A garbage dump/landfill perhaps? Garbage attracts rats/rodents, rats are a favorite food.

Great Horned owls will eat smaller owls... they will not "gather" with them... the Great Horns also eat the Barred Owls which are fairly large in comparison to the screech owl for example.

Normally if there are many Great Horned Owls in an area, all other owls move out or quite far away.

I have never heard of anything like this except around large garbage dumps or landfills.

Just my 2¢
Cindy

One other thought is maybe the tree near your home contains a Great Horned nest... they can have 2, 3, 4 or sometimes more offspring. Maybe when they are the loudest is when the fledglings are leaving the nest?

Your post got me thinking so I went up on http://www.owlpages.com/ (http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Strix&species=variaand) listened to the different calls between the barred owl and the great horned owl. We have a pair of barred owls, not great horned. Then I compared the calls of the barn owl to the Eastern screech, and we've got screech owls singing at night and at dawn! Thanks for the nudge!

If anyone is searching for a particular owl you can either get a listing by genus, or by common name. Ignore the 'files not found' notice and click on the tabs anyway. They should work.

[LoveMyArabians]

Your post got me thinking so I went up on http://www.owlpages.com/ (http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Strix&species=variaand) listened to the different calls between the barred owl and the great horned owl. We have a pair of barred owls, not great horned. Then I compared the calls of the barn owl to the Eastern screech, and we've got screech owls singing at night and at dawn! Thanks for the nudge!

If anyone is searching for a particular owl you can either get a listing by genus, or by common name. Ignore the 'files not found' notice and click on the tabs anyway. They should work.

The Barred Owl has a very distinct call... it's like "Who cooks for yooouuuu" This may sound crazy, but if you learn the call you can go out at night and call the owls in... if no Barred Owls live near you a Great Horn may show up for dinner!

Love Owls!

Cindy

[harveyhorses]

Uhh, no dumps around here. We are between the river and a pond. With WAY too much development in the last few years.
As I said before, this has been going on for YEARS, (10 or more according to siblings) but two or three, maybe 4 times a year. No rhyme or reason to it. If there were a such a constant supply of food I would think they would do this more often than this.
The Great Horned have a nest (or did a couple of years ago) about 1/2 mile away. Other nests I don't know about. I think we are just owl central.
Bird count this morning, two Great blue herons, on lesser green (?) two piliated
woodpeckers, bunch of ducks. Assorted other birds. We have buffleheads on our pond, which are NOT supposed to be here. but there they are. interfering with my fishing.
Why wasn't the book called 'HOW To Kill a Mockingbird'??? JK...
sorry about my spelling

[harveyhorses]

Cool link Chiefs, Thanks!

[LoveMyArabians]

Uhh, no dumps around here. We are between the river and a pond. With WAY too much development in the last few years.
As I said before, this has been going on for YEARS, (10 or more according to siblings) but two or three, maybe 4 times a year. No rhyme or reason to it. If there were a such a constant supply of food I would think they would do this more often than this.
The Great Horned have a nest (or did a couple of years ago) about 1/2 mile away. Other nests I don't know about. I think we are just owl central.
Bird count this morning, two Great blue herons, on lesser green (?) two piliated
woodpeckers, bunch of ducks. Assorted other birds. We have buffleheads on our pond, which are NOT supposed to be here. but there they are. interfering with my fishing.
Why wasn't the book called 'HOW To Kill a Mockingbird'??? JK...
sorry about my spelling

Owls will eat ducks, snakes, frogs, etc... so maybe that is the abundance of food for them.

Love your Owls... live in harmony with them... they are very special and it sounds like their habitat is disappearing fast. Very sad.

What if your property was taken over by outside sources... you tried your best to exist but more and more was taken away. I always wonder who the hell said "humans" were the smartest creatures on this planet... we sure do a poor job proving it. : ( Have you ever read "Watership Down"?

Co-exist... it's good for the soul.

Cindy

[Bluey]

Owls will eat ducks, snakes, frogs, etc... so maybe that is the abundance of food for them.

Love your Owls... live in harmony with them... they are very special and it sounds like their habitat is disappearing fast. Very sad.

What if your property was taken over by outside sources... you tried your best to exist but more and more was taken away. I always wonder who the hell said "humans" were the smartest creatures on this planet... we sure do a poor job proving it. : ( Have you ever read "Watership Down"?

Co-exist... it's good for the soul.

Cindy

Don't forget that change is part of life also, as many species came and went before humans had anything to do with it.;)

In a narrower sense, even we are losing open land to developments, city blocks to decay and gangs and in other places, regaining the same also.

Change, change, always and forever.
Static is a trap and the start of decay.
You learn to live and adjust to change, or you are one more statistic.:yes:

[LoveMyArabians]

Don't forget that change is part of life also, as many species came and went before humans had anything to do with it.;)

In a narrower sense, even we are losing open land to developments, city blocks to decay and gangs and in other places, regaining the same also.

Change, change, always and forever.
Static is a trap and the start of decay.
You learn to live and adjust to change, or you are one more statistic.:yes:

We are much more educated today then we were even 50 years ago. Succumbing to bad change is a cop-out for not doing anything. If the change is bad... make it good...don't just be a bystander and complain or comply.

Just my thoughts,
Cindy

[harveyhorses]

I do love my owls, much much more this past weekend when we could hear them in the not too far distance. Not in the tree outside my window:winkgrin:
Suburbia has oozed its way to us and I hate it. I have planted clover in my yard for bees, much to the dismay of the lawn care man at SS. "You will kill it when you put weed killer down" I don't USE weed killer" If it is green and not poison it's o.k. by me.
The more I talk to the neighbors (who have been here 20 + years, about 1/2 the time we have) it sounds like boundary disputes. Since there is less and less for them to share, but the gatherings have been going on that long off and on.
I do have a tape recorder ready for the next time they go at it.
The mocking bird that flew in my car and attacked the mirror and befouled everything, THAT is another story....

[rennyben]

I adore owls! How lucky you are! When I lived in Ocala, we had a Barred Owl that lived somewhere close to us. Each night, like clockwork as I was making dinner, he/she would hunt lizards in our yard. It was sooo cool to see it swoop down on an unsuspecting lizard through the kitchen window. My son was 2 at the time and his favorite book was "Owl Babies" -- we pretended that our owl was the mamma in the story.

I really missed the owl when we moved. I hope you get to record them and put the link up, I'd like to hear them.

[Bluey]

---"I do have a tape recorder ready for the next time they go at it.
The mocking bird that flew in my car and attacked the mirror and befouled everything, THAT is another story...."---

I would not have thought of the recording, that is a good idea.:cool:

We have roadrunners that cruise the vehicles and preen themselves on the mirrors.
Don't know if they are trying to make themselves look pretty, or think they are posing to another roadrunner.:lol:
They get kind of annoyed when you reclaim the vehicle.;)

[Alagirl]

---"I do have a tape recorder ready for the next time they go at it.
The mocking bird that flew in my car and attacked the mirror and befouled everything, THAT is another story...."---

I would not have thought of the recording, that is a good idea.:cool:

We have roadrunners that cruise the vehicles and preen themselves on the mirrors.
Don't know if they are trying to make themselves look pretty, or think they are posing to another roadrunner.:lol:
They get kind of annoyed when you reclaim the vehicle.;)


MEEP MEEP

[Foxtrot's]

I get a thrill and am so flattered when wildlife accepts our hospitality. We have a small
weeping birch that for some reason used to attract an owl. He/she wold use it to burp up his dinner remnants all wrapped up in fur. This is not poop, but the bones of his last dinner. We were the cool parents at elementary school because we collected them up and took them into the teacher - she had the kids open up each little brown parcel and take out the bones and put the teeny tiny skeletons together, including heads, ribs, spine in all its ever diminishing sized bones to the tip of the tail. They would be mounted and shown at parents' night.

[harveyhorses]

Co-exist... it's good for the soul.:lol: Tonight yes, nice calming hoo hoo Hoooo s
When they are right outside raising Cain, it's good for the heart rate! I will try to remember that when I am peeling myself off the ceiling:lol:
Sounds like two of them are squabling way off in the distance. Maybe they are waiting for storms...

[Bluey]

I get a thrill and am so flattered when wildlife accepts our hospitality. We have a small
weeping birch that for some reason used to attract an owl. He/she wold use it to burp up his dinner remnants all wrapped up in fur. This is not poop, but the bones of his last dinner. We were the cool parents at elementary school because we collected them up and took them into the teacher - she had the kids open up each little brown parcel and take out the bones and put the teeny tiny skeletons together, including heads, ribs, spine in all its ever diminishing sized bones to the tip of the tail. They would be mounted and shown at parents' night.

Our neighbor had one huge owl kill chickens regularly and one day the owl hung in the chicken fence, so the neighbor killed him.
The owl left two little owlets in the nest, that we kids promptly took down and hand fed.
They grew and grew and grew, still all fuzz and our school big day came and this year it was a reproduction of a 1500's town.
We were dressed as minions, carrying a hand made cage with sticks and the two owls in there, for the town to admire and even found a wood cutting of that age representing that same happening.:cool:

Eventually they started to get feathers and our father build an owl house and nailed it high on a pine tree, close to where the nest had been.
When they looked like they could start flying, we put them up there and eventually they left.

For a few years, a pair kept nesting and raising owlets in that box high on the pine tree.:)

And not one of those every bothered our neighbor's chickens.;)

That is my owl story.:yes:

[samburu97]

Let the information out that you have owls routinely congregating in your backyard out to members of the local birding community and charge them $ to come onto your property. As long as you don't mind people lurking about your back yard with scopes, infrared devices and flashing cameras you could make some money.

You may laugh at the idea but a snowy owl showed up in Spring Hill, TN this winter and hung around the GM Saturn property and the region was inundated with birders. The community had to have the police out directing traffic on the highway running next to the plant. Thousands of birders showed up from hundreds of miles away to see this bird that is very rare in the southern half of the U.S.

Birders are fascinated by owls and they will come if they know you rountinely have owls during certain periods. Also be aware that if you do anything to uproot the owls you might be performing illegal acts according to the Migratory Bird legislation. If you take any action to uproot I would not talk to openly about it.

Good luck with your owls and I wish I could see them.

[harveyhorses]

I talked to a member of a 'bird watching group'. He wanted to know when they showed up. I told him to expect a call around 2-3 am. One day. I am starting to put this on a calender so I do have more of an idea.
Wish the builders that destroyed one of their trees could be punished... I can't think of anything appropriate I have NO plans for uprooting or dislodging, just a weird thing that nobody seems to have experienced before. Like the repair man. "huh never seen that before:D"
Am trying to borrow night vision motion camera. They will probably never show up again if I am ready for them.

[JSwan]

Am trying to borrow night vision motion camera. They will probably never show up again if I am ready for them.


Hey - if they do show up just give 'em Tootsie Pops!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IA5Cv_5-g8

[Chief2]

JSwan, that's cute!

[SED]

I confess I'm in the "love those Owls" camp. I've had owls in dire straits looking for mates and being territorial, right outside my window. A little distracting, but also so thrilling. Take it over cats in heat any day!!!!!!!

[Flying Hippotamus]

A great website that has an audio clip of bird songs. This link should take you to the owl page: I want to know what kind of owls they are!

http://enature.com/fieldguides/view_default.asp?sortBy=has+audio&viewType=list&curFamilyID=241

My owl story- One night I awoke to screaming that I recognized as a squirrel. I thought -darn those cats why are they torturing a squirrel. But I was still half asleep and I didn't move just listened to the screaming go on. It seemed to be right outside my window where I knew there was a squirrel nest. After awhile the screaming finally stopped and I heard the distinctive whoo-whoo of the great horned owl right outside my window. I think he was bragging, I thought it was really cool.

Hey Harvey where are you located? Harvey was my mother's maiden name maybe we are related!

[Foxtrot's]

Bluey - that's a cute story - I would think that the odds of them being able to live on their own under the circumstances of their upbringing would be quite low. To think they raised their own families (or perhaps only one did and bought a mate?) Well done.

[Bluey]

Bluey - that's a cute story - I would think that the odds of them being able to live on their own under the circumstances of their upbringing would be quite low. To think they raised their own families (or perhaps only one did and bought a mate?) Well done.

Thank you, you just never know with wildlife, but after we put them up there, we watched them roost by the box and fly around for three weeks, before they left, so we know that up to then, they were making it.
No way to know if the ones that came every year to nest were either of those, but whoever they were, they were welcome to it, as long as they didn't kill any more chickens.
The neighbor had also put a wire top on most of his chicken yard and that kept predators out of there.

I never heard of owls congregating like they are on the OP's trees, that must have been a treat to hear and see.

I kind of like that the one I have in the barn is on pigeon patrol, as those are dirty birds, carrying diseases.

We used to run homing pigeons, but those we kept very clean, with dustmite baths and treated water, as we didn't want them to cause problems any one place they may rest.

[harveyhorses]

This BB is the best! I started off with a vent and now I realize just how lucky I am. (remind self of that when peeling self off ceiling:lol:)
I know we have great horned, (Love hearing them) seen them. Also screech and bard (sp) in the area.
I live west of Richmond. Midlothian. When we moved here it was country, dirt roads no neighbors, I was and am one lucky lady.
A friend was over yesterday and wanted to know what was hanging outside my window. Microphone. I am ready:D
Still trying to find a night camera...

[Vesper Sparrow]

http://wildspace.ec.gc.ca/intro-e.html has sound recordings for most Eastern owl species (use the pull-down menu on the left), so if you listen to the calls for Great Horned, Eastern Screech, Barn and Barred, you should be able to identify the species. A secondary call of the Barred Owl (not the usual "who cooks for you" but another one) is the one I would associate most with the sound of a woman screaming.

It is probably not a territorial dispute between species (the different species usually get along OK with one another since they use different parts of the habitat) but between indidividuals of the same species.

[jaimebaker]

just read all of this thread. SOOO excited if you can catch them having a hoe down in the yard!! To me there is just something almost fantasy like about having owls around. I might see one at our farm maybe once a year, once every other year. I would love to have them up more often. But ya know, I know some folks that think having deer and turkey frolicking in their yards would be a beautiful sight. I beg to differ:lol: It's just what you get used to I suppose:D

[Small Name Trainer aka SNIT!]

because "our" barn owls have owlets every year and they fall off the beams of the indoor where they hatch and people who come by want us to "take care of them"......and after calling the wildlife experts at UCD found out that leaving them alone and letting their parents feed them on the ground was the best thing...which is what we had always done in the past......our cats prefer the pigeon babies...no big nasty beak and claws! and the dogs don't like the smell of baby owl...go figure! we have had a pair nesting here since we built the indoor and they "talk" to us as they circle in their hunts and don't get upset when we check on the babies,,,behind a peice of plywood in the corner of said arena...with lots of gross carnage and body parts and pellets to show they are still being fed and cared for till they can fly....baby owls in the wild almost always spend some time on the ground before flight and horned owls usually spend weeks on the ground before being strong enough to fly...unless some dolt "rescues" them and takes them to a wildlife center....if you don't disturb the parents,,,they will continue to care for them....also found out horned owls are the one bird that when they call...all other smaller birds and rodents shut up and disappear! they are at the top of the food chain and all others split or hide when they are around...according to the scientist types! so if you really have great horned owls and not screech or barred or barn or burrowing...they should be the top dog and if the others have lost their space in the ecosystem...this may be what all the ruffled feathers are about...lost hunting/living space...baby owls need lots of food and hatch every couple of days since the eggs are laid every 2 to 3 days during a nesting season....so maybe its fighting when hatching starts???? i say put some rodent on the barbie or stock your pond with fish and frog and let them have at it....they have a life span of less then 3 years in the wild...most owls get hit by cars! your yard might be the local rest area! and a fan in the bedroom will create a nice white noise to cover most of their chatter....i can't sleep through bizarre animal noise either!!!!