owls are special!
Snow Birds
I would love to see a screech owl. I just read that they're the size of a cardinal!
A couple of years ago Pat and I were on a back road in WV (in daytime) and encountered a pair of Barred Owls standing in the road conversing. We still talk about it.
I camped in Catoctin with my daughter when she was in third grade, so...a dozen years ago, anyhow, first night I was awake almost all night but heard four different owls, I was so thrilled!
Judy--WOW...WOW....
I just watched (1 hour!) of the PBS film on Owls....I was mesmerized!
I need to now go to bed--as I need to get up at 5:30AM.
BUT--I will send the links to my daughters....I hope they take the time
ti see it all.
Many of us go through our lives and NEVER see an owl--I have never seen one!
I did not look at your other two links--but will....
Gita
Muddy, I love the Screech Owls too! I would say they are a bit bigger than a cardinal, but not much. I have spent a fair amount of time with a Rpator Rescue group to take photographs of their owls that could not be released after injuries. My oldest daughter even got to hold a Barn Owl (her favorite) on one of the shoots.
We have both Great Horned Owls and Barred Owls behind our complex. Last Spring we could hear the Barred Owls hooting their mating calls!
Karen
I just played these recordings of Barred Owl sounds, and my cat got very nervous: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Barred_Owl/sounds
They make some very interesting dog-like sounds.
muddy--
Weird sounds for sure---
you should tape these and play them at Halloween....
I loved hearing the cricket sounds too, on the owl calls.
What kind of a creature would make this imprint? A snake? I've found a tiny garden snake before.
I'm starting to hear the woodpecker again. I've only seen it twice though. What a pretty bird.
scratching my head on that one. Would a snake be active on the snow? I guess it was warm enough yesterday, if something was in the right place, to warm up and venture out.
Some small rodents make tunnels in the snow at the bottom of the snow pack. When the pack melts down, it is like taking the roof off their tunnels, giving the feature you see. Probably mice or voles.
I agree with David, they look like subsurface trails of mice or voles. I have had the luck of encountering a number of owls. The first being at dusk, a great horned owl no less. It was searching a meadow that my small terrier and I were in, rather than enjoy the sight I went running for my dog.
The second was in the woods. I was in my tree stand watching the small birds, chipmunks, and squirrels play when it suddenly became silent. A great horned owl cruised through, not making a sound. It was impressive, something that big inflight and so silent. My last encounter was with a barn owl, and of all places in a barn, he was sitting at the joint of 2 beams, if he would not have turned his head I would have missed him completely.
The boys made owl calls in shop class and we used to get answers to them at dusk, having the large woods behind us.
This message was edited Mar 10, 2015 1:44 PM
yep, a caved-in trail.
We found this really cool print in the snow... hope you can make out the details; it was hard to photograph! click on the image to see the full thing...
Critter is that big enough to be a hawk impression? Looks like tail feathers and wing feathers. I have seen ours land on the snow and throw out it's feathers to help catch or hide it's prey.
That's interesting! Vole tunnel sounds about right. What's also interesting is that's the exact same path that our neighborhood feral cat takes when passing through my yard!
Jill, what a neat imprint! What do you think the bird was doing?
Holly, I think you're on to something. It looks like whatever it was could have been dragging its prey.
Looked about dove-sized to me, but I have seen falcons here -- rarely, but that would be about the right size. Could it have been an owl strike? Otherwise, I'm not sure why it would take a bird several wingbeats to get off the ground, even in the snow.
It just occurred to me that there's no blood, feathers, fur etc. in that photo, so maybe the bird landed on the powdery snow and had trouble taking off again.
I started a new thread.. ...http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1388271/
That was my initial thought, Muddy.
Following to new thread now...