Who,Here Has Seen An Owl In The Wild??

The mountain lion has been a debate for a long time. I remember when they were made an endangered species in the 70's in NH. There hadn't been a confirmed kill since the late 1880's, so Fish and Game looked for a long time and finally decided they were extinct not too long ago. Despite their extinct status, people seem to spot them from time to time. Hunters, hikers, snowmobilers, skiers, lumberjacks and other types who spend a lot of time in the woods and know what a bobcat and a lynx looks like see them. I also remember reports of sightings along the highway and stuff by more 'city' type people. Despite being extinct, the recent advent of digital trail cameras used by hunters have spotted a few in recent years.

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20120821/NEWHAMPSHIRE03/708219874&template=mobileart


Fucking awesome!

Yeah, my new neighbor said he saw it cutting across the field from my property (he was in his car), and he said it leaped the 2 lane road in one bound meaning, it leapt off of one bank, hit the "Yellow Line" in the middle of the road (there isn't one, but you catch my meaning), and the next time it landed was the opposite bank".....he also said he saw the black on it's tail-tuft.

He also said dogs go missing around here with alarming regularity, so keep Dexter in......

I dunno, but a pretty cool story.

Another one of those "Why I should carry a handgun in the woods" kind of things.
 
We see them pretty regularly around here.

Mtn Lions or Fisher Cats?

Mountain Lions aren't rare out west...but they sure as shit are out here. They have been extirpated for hundreds of years in some instances.
Honestly, what a lot of the "Green" movement is doing is returning habitat so that large predators can return and survive.
I'm all for it, to be honest.
 
Mtn Lions or Fisher Cats?

Mountain Lions aren't rare out west...but they sure as shit are out here. They have been extirpated for hundreds of years in some instances.
Honestly, what a lot of the "Green" movement is doing is returning habitat so that large predators can return and survive.
I'm all for it, to be honest.
Owls,

But this is mountain lion country, big time.
 
i see one at least once a year in the woods around here. up at the camp there has been one in the woods across the road for more than 20 years.....obviously not the same one, but likely offspring of the one 20 years ago. we here it hoot in late afternoon and early evening......only maybe one hoot every couple hours. very cool.

when i was about 4 or 5 in the summer i was out in the front lawn playing with friends and it got to be about 7pm and my mom came out and said "go up stairs and get ready for a bath, while talking to the neighbor mom from across the street. well i went up stairs and got undressed in the parents bedroom cuz it was closer to the bathroom than my room, and i wasn't too keen of the dark. well i got down to my underpants and this flying monster with glowing eyes and flames coming from it's mouth swooped down on me bellowing a blood curlding scream. i dropped to the floor and went screaming down the stairs and outside "there's a monster in the house".....several times at the top of my lungs. well mom and neighbor thought i was just afraid of the dark, which was true, but there WAS a monster in the house. the dad from across the street came over and went inside to find a screech owl flying around the first floor (now). they got a broom and opened the front door and shooed it out the door.

apparently, while we were out front, the owl had flown down the chinmey (the flu was open) and up into the second floor. when we got back upstairs and turned on the lights in the parents bedroom, every thing was scratched up.....their bed, the phone, the furniture. the thing was kind of stuck in that room and when i came up there and switched on the light......it flew at me and out of the bedroom and down the stairs into the living room, somewhere.

talk about getting the shorts scared off ya......i'm still not keen on the dark.
 
I think the big problem is that the Fish and game people would expect a sustainable population of animals would produce the occasional car strike, droppings, frozen dead animal, etc., and that hasn't happened. Hell, in Florida we have one of the rarest big cats in the US (the Florida panther), and with a population of maybe 150-200 animals, we occasionally have car strikes and panthers showing up in residential areas that need to be relocated...and Florida is a hell of a lot bigger than NH and probably more rural (everglades national park). So, with no direct physical evidence in NH, it is hard to confirm sightings and or be sure trail cam pics are not shenanigans. Last I read, that was the official NH Fish and Game position. No body or other evidence, it is unlikely that we have a stable population in the state. I also read that wolves and mountain lions from the west have occasionally been found pretty far east, as males have to find their own home territory and often wander far from where they are born, eventually reaching free territory, but where there are no females.
 
Owls,

But this is mountain lion country, big time.

Yeah, I recall stories of people being attacked and stuff up in the hills in SoCal. I kind of remember a mountain biker getting killed in Orange County by a cougar. Maybe he just slept with a cougar. ??? Certainly I've read it happening in NorCal mountains.
 
i see one at least once a year in the woods around here. up at the camp there has been one in the woods across the road for more than 20 years.....obviously not the same one, but likely offspring of the one 20 years ago. we here it hoot in late afternoon and early evening......only maybe one hoot every couple hours. very cool.

when i was about 4 or 5 in the summer i was out in the front lawn playing with friends and it got to be about 7pm and my mom came out and said "go up stairs and get ready for a bath, while talking to the neighbor mom from across the street. well i went up stairs and got undressed in the parents bedroom cuz it was closer to the bathroom than my room, and i wasn't too keen of the dark. well i got down to my underpants and this flying monster with glowing eyes and flames coming from it's mouth swooped down on me bellowing a blood curlding scream. i dropped to the floor and went screaming down the stairs and outside "there's a monster in the house".....several times at the top of my lungs. well mom and neighbor thought i was just afraid of the dark, which was true, but there WAS a monster in the house. the dad from across the street came over and went inside to find a screech owl flying around the first floor (now). they got a broom and opened the front door and shooed it out the door.

apparently, while we were out front, the owl had flown down the chinmey (the flu was open) and up into the second floor. when we got back upstairs and turned on the lights in the parents bedroom, every thing was scratched up.....their bed, the phone, the furniture. the thing was kind of stuck in that room and when i came up there and switched on the light......it flew at me and out of the bedroom and down the stairs into the living room, somewhere.

talk about getting the shorts scared off ya......i'm still not keen on the dark.

:lol: I'll take "Shit that would scar you forever for $500", Alex.
 
I had one jump off a branch and swoop over my head during a hike. Big sonuvabitch.... scared the poop out of me. :embarrassed:
 
Yeah, I recall stories of people being attacked and stuff up in the hills in SoCal. I kind of remember a mountain biker getting killed in Orange County by a cougar. Maybe he just slept with a cougar. ??? Certainly I've read it happening in NorCal mountains.


I'm ALL about the cougar :lol:.
 
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Lately the mountain lions have been heading into town around here

Lion hunt: The hunt last week for the mountain lion that attacked a 6-year-old boy— while at the leading edge of a group out for hike — ended with lion treed by dogs and killed. The exact location of the attack was at the Picchetti Open Space Preserve, on the Zinfandel Trail 1.2 miles from the trailhead at the Piccheti Winery on Montebello Road.

The attack occurred last Sunday, at mid-day (they usually feed at dawn and dusk) and near a group (they usually pick out solo victims), which is extremely unusual and may show how desperate and hungry the lion was.

If the carrying capacity (amount of water, food, cover) of the habitat were filled, older lions would drive out the young lions and force them to find their own turf, where food might be difficult to locate. In that case, darting and moving problem lions would not work because you would be transplanting them to another lion’s territory. That is likely how a young lion ended up on Rengstorff Avenue in Mountain View this past May. It was forced out of the hills.

I've ridden up Montebello...it's a few miles from my house
 
I've seen a few owls.

Don't remember ever seeing a mountain lion. Lots of bobcats, coyotes, and black bear, though.
 
Have seen an owl & deer in the wild, along with hawks, and one Osprey.

I have also seen a coyote near my home.
 
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We have osprey and many different hawks around here.. Big hawks down to the sparrow hawk....


What is tg exwild??
 
Have seen an owl & deer in tg exwild, along with hawks, and one Osprey.

I didn't even mention deer because I can't walk from my house to my car without tripping over one. Hawks are pretty common too. I've seen one bald eagle here too.
 
I used to see owls on my drive home from work when I lived in Colorado
 
Just two owls in the wild, and I'm a birder. I've seen hundreds of eagles and multiple thousands of hawks.

One cool bird that has been thriving in the area the last 15 years is the monk parakeet. They are in the thousands now, nesting in the super tall cell towers. Fast and stretchy flyers.

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I didn't even mention deer because I can't walk from my house to my car without tripping over one. Hawks are pretty common too. I've seen one bald eagle here too.
Same here at my kids house...I've had to stop in the road and let them decide when it's ok for me to pass...........
 
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Just two owls in the wild, and I'm a birder. I've seen hundreds of eagles and multiple thousands of hawks.
One cool bird that has been thriving in the area the last 15 years is the monk parakeet. They are in the thousands now, nesting in the super tall cell towers. Fast and stretchy flyers.
I think that was the point that I was trying to make... I wasn't sure if it was because of where I live and the forest that I would have been in but ya...Seen many hawks and eagles....owls,not so much.......
 
Here is a little Aussie owl:



I have pics of some in Costa Rica too but can't find 'em.

In general though I hear a lot more owls than I see. We have Mexican screech owls here; if you are out in the woods at night they sound like a bunch of bottled psychosis.
 
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