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

And,though I don't know what this has to do with anything,when I was growing up,my younger brother had a shed and raised homing pigeons...




They are survivors too.........
 
tiger roach said:
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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I scared a huge barn owl out of a chimney I was climbing at Smith Rocks. I'm moving up when suddenly, about five ferry above me there's a frantic scrabbling and this big white owl dives out of the chimney, unfolds four or five feet of wingspan and sails away. Scared the living daylights outta me!
 
Strangely, we had one in our neighborhood a few months ago. I only noticed because the palm tree it was in was being dive-bombed by every other bird in the hood, including a small hawk.
 
Frequently.
The best was when I was but a wee lad. My dad took me out on my first deer hunting trip. He put me in a brush pile, handed me a rifle and told me to sit still and shoot a deer if I saw one. This was in the late 70s and the deer population was in bad shape. He knew I'd never see anything.
At any rate, I got cold and decided to head for the truck. As I was walking a cattle trail through the woods not long before dusk, I rounded a corner and there, sitting on a tree stump right at eye level was an owl not more than six feet away. We were both very surprised to see each other. I froze. He took off and I felt his wingtips smack me on top of the head as he went. I nearly shit my pants.
 
Elias Graves said:
Frequently.
The best was when I was but a wee lad. My dad took me out on my first deer hunting trip. He put me in a brush pile, handed me a rifle and told me to sit still and shoot a deer if I saw one. This was in the late 70s and the deer population was in bad shape. He knew I'd never see anything.
At any rate, I got cold and decided to head for the truck. As I was walking a cattle trail through the woods not long before dusk, I rounded a corner and there, sitting on a tree stump right at eye level was an owl not more than six feet away. We were both very surprised to see each other. I froze. He took off and I felt his wingtips smack me on top of the head as he went. I nearly shit my pants.
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:eek:

I remember my first deer hunting trip. I was 16 and my best friend came along. The men put us in the least likely stand. Well, about dusk we watched a herd of doe enter the clearing. We counted 18. A pair faced off and stood up on their back legs like boxers, their hooves clacking at each other. We barely fought off laughing, it was so unexpected. We probably scared off a buck that was staying back in the trees but we didn't care. None of the men believed us when we told them what happened later.

I never hunted deer after that. I guess seeing them alive was much more satisfying than killing them.
 
I've seen owls in the wild here in Germany.

Had a run in with a mountain lion in PA as a teenager with my cousin on their farm back in the 80's. No one but him seems to believe it. But it happened. I loved a couple of years ago a hunter from back home bagged one. It was like justification for all those years ago when everyone thought we were full of it.
 
This has turned into a very interesting thread of personal wildlife stories....
Thanks for contributing....
 
Knox in Box said:
I've seen owls in the wild here in Germany.

Had a run in with a mountain lion in PA as a teenager with my cousin on their farm back in the 80's. No one but him seems to believe it. But it happened. I loved a couple of years ago a hunter from back home bagged one. It was like justification for all those years ago when everyone thought we were full of it.
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I had a meeting with a mountain lion ten years ago or so here in Oklahoma on my uncle's farm. He wouldn't believe me that I had seen one.
The sucker was getting into somebody's chickens a few weeks later, though, and word got out. The ranger finally trapped it and hauled it up into the mountains.
 
My brother and I used to walk across a big field on the way to school. We started seeing an owl every morning around the same place. We'd scare it up and it would fly ahead of us.
 
Rare, but I have seen half a doz or so big owls before. Most of the instances were on wooded forest or gravel roads at night and you'd catch one in the headlights. There was one giant owl that used to roost in in a dead tree at my parents place. Sometimes you'd see him in the daytime.
I don't think I've ever seen a small owl like a barn owl, tho I'm sure I've heard em plenty of times.
 
Elias Graves said:
I had a meeting with a mountain lion ten years ago or so here in Oklahoma on my uncle's farm. He wouldn't believe me that I had seen one.
The sucker was getting into somebody's chickens a few weeks later, though, and word got out. The ranger finally trapped it and hauled it up into the mountains.
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I don't know about Oklahoma but PA was veeerrry strange to see one.

I actually was not surprised that folks didn't believe us. It was just frustrating a bit though.
 
nuke_diver said:
I've ridden up Montebello...it's a few miles from my house
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Montebello is great for hiking -- in the headwaters of Stevens Creek, you can see a lot of newts during the right season. I've seen bobcats and coyotes up there, but never any lions -- although you know that they're around. I think it's probably the drought that's driving them down to Palo Alto, Los Altos, etc..
 
shoeless said:
We have owls, hawks, buzzards and bats all over the place here. MD is one of the heaviest forested per acre states in the U.S. When those screech owls let loose, it sounds like a woman is being violated. :eek:
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Funny, we don't have many screech owls here, but the women are screamers.

The first time I heard a bobcat in heat, I thought a drunk woman was getting off while being murdered. Then again, it could have been a local gal. :wink:
 
Ha ha...

Bobcats are elusive too,IMO...

I have a bobcat pelt from many years ago...I'm thinking the late 60's...

Still early enough that wildlife would still cross rural roads without thinking twice...

It was struck by a car and killed......My Dad happened to come along just after it was struck and took it and had its pelt cured...

I've never seen a bobcat in the wild....


My Dad has but then again he was the oldest boy of 12 kids,quit school in grade 6 to fish with his Dad. He's seen a lot of things...And shown me a lot......And one deer season shot 7 deer with a 22..They really lived off the land......
 
tompetty said:
My Dad has but then again he was the oldest boy of 12 kids,quit school in grade 6 to fish with his Dad. He's seen a lot of things...And shown me a lot......And one deer season shot 7 deer with a 22..They really lived off the land......
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Taking down a deer with a .22 is no small task. He must have been pretty close...like in your backyard close. The deer in my neighborhood love to eat my tomato plants. Maybe I should get some .22 shells. :idea:
 
Well obviously I wasn't there but I do believe him. I've hunted the same area with him at my grandmothers. My grandma and grandpa both backed up the story...It was very thick brush...Most people used 30-30s(another bush gun)..


My Dad is really old now but he was one of those people that if you went hunting or fishing with,9 times out of 10,you were coming home with something....
 
I once watched my Dad catch an eel using rabbit snare....He had a hook on the end of the snare and had a smelts head on the hook...We were at a familiar salt water (river,I used to call it), during low tide...Dad on all fours sticking the smelts head under rocks. One grabs it and Dad ran up the embankment faster than I've ever seen him run before the eel could squirm off..


Eel is something I could never bring myself to eat............
 
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