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I almost stood on a Short Eared owl once when out for a walk. Someone had put some bird feeders on the corner of a small pine plantation, so I walked over for a look and this great big bird flew up right under my nose. Effing pooed my pants.😀
Anyway it flew off into the trees and then after a few seconds came back out towards me at head height. Could have almost touched it as it sailed past gawping at me. Just one of those never forget cool moments.
On most night rides - we live in a semi-rural area with lots of fields/woods.
12:30 today
There's a golf course near where I live and I've heard the Tawny Owl calling and lucky enough to see it flying a few times, usually over my head when I'm walking the dogs.
Best I ever saw was on a late evening ride home from work and came across a Short Eared Owl flying over the tall grass. I just stopped and watched it, absolutely stunning to see and very very rare to see where I live.
And have a regular Sparrowhawk visit and had a Merlin terrorising the sparrows last weekend 🙂
Buzzards are the most common raptor down our way - massive great things. The seagulls, crows and rooks mob them and make an unholy racket. We also get the occasional peregrine falcon and had a hobby visiting in the summer - we think it was after the swifts and swallows.
Most nights when I take my dog out for his last wee. I have to keep an eye out in case the owl makes a swoop for him.
There's a Tawny Owl calling survey
https://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/project-owl/tawny-owl-calling-survey
We hear a female squeaking quite often if our bedroom window is often, a male less frequently. Never seen them.
Most nights here too, it sits in the trees at the end of the garden and often swoops down and onto the chimney stack at the back of the house..
There’s a Tawny Owl calling survey
https://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/project-owl/tawny-owl-calling-survey
We hear a female squeaking quite often if our bedroom window is often, a male less frequently. Never seen them.
I'll get onto that - as well as the Barn Owls, we hear Tawny Owls regularly (at least that's what I think they are)..never seen them though.
Most nights & mornings
Most nights on my weekly local night ride.
I've had one cut across the trail in front of me with a mouse in its claws
I've had one fly parallel with me for a few metres on a fast bit of trail, my lights really lit up it's underside wings
I had one stare at me last night from a tree, but by the time I'd got my phone out he'd flapped off.
I also nearly ran over mice 3 times on the trail last night
Most nights here.
Terrific noise one night so went out to see a couple of young owls with parents being shown round the area.
One perched on the stack and two on the tv ariel. Others across the garden in the trees.
Had a barn owl fly along with me on night on the SDW.
Something quite uplifting about owls.
If you hear 'Twit a whoo' then it's not a Barn Owl but probably a Tawny.
http://www.wildowl.co.uk/owlcalls.html
The best way to say it is ‘a owl’. See also ‘a otter’ 😄
Couple of nights ago in the woods at the back of the house.
Got buzzed by an Owl on a night ride last year - super silent scared the crap out of me when it came from behind me.
Mostly in the summer, usually on consecutive nights then not for several weeks at a time, this is in zone 3 London though!
I live opposite a tiny nature reserve which is linked by enough trees and gardens to other larger reserves and woodland around dulwich College with its large parks plus Crystal Palace park so there is enough woodland to sustain a few owls.
I hear them more here than I did growing up in the countryside.
I also see a pair of peregrine falcons on the TV transmitter waiting for passing pigeon.
Most nights here too... Plus in the mornings got a couple of woodpeckers hammering away
Same. I love living in a forest.
I hear them regularly amongst our trees and Yew hedges. Everywhere except the Owl box I made especially for them
Happy to announce that they are very much alive and hooting here in my part of Carmarthenshire. As are the fornicating foxes- my goodness they are noisy!
Last night. I’d actually not heard them for a while but they were properly at it last night, I suspect sitting on the roof of the house as I didn’t have a window open.
All through the summer I hear them in the garden when walking the dog around it in the evening (humble brag!), it’s really nice.
As are the fornicating foxes- my goodness they are noisy!
Had that in the garden last night..or they were having a domestic.
Just about shat my bibtights last night, when one flew across my path just above head height.
They fear for their cat…
And the kids...
Used to regularly hear a Tawny flying around locally, then one night I could hear it very close, somewhere near the bottom of next door’s garden, where there’s a line of conifers. I had a bright torch with me which I shone on the tops of the trees and spotted it staring straight back at me!
Haven’t heard it around for quite a while, although I thought I heard something like it briefly a couple of weeks ago.
I don’t live in the country, I live in a heavily built up area next to what used to be the A350, until the western bypass around Chippenham was built, so having an owl around was a surprise.
Most nights as I back on to woods.
I even collided with a barn owl on route to the MNPR.
Saw this flash of white n got a load of soo soft feathers in my face.
Well bizzare.
Yesterday.
Hear the screechy ones fairly regularly around our way.
And the anguished screams of their prey.
Haven't heard one for yonks by I see one every Tuesday when I do a night ride. Always on a fence in the same field. Always takes off and flies parallel to me. Never fails to make my night. I suspect it doesn't make his night in quite the same way.
can just hear two now, which is good cos I havent noticed it for a week
This morning when I got out the front door.
Get a Tawny in the garden pretty frequently, noisy bugger. Not the best picture, but a 2 second exposure at 500mm!
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Frequently see Short Eared Owls and Little Owls, only occasionally see a Barn owl as they are more nocturnal. Not seen a Long Eared Owl yet.
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Heard one in the summer, last time i camped out.
I was driving down the A68 one night, around midnight, passing through one of the medium sized towns and i saw two barn owls on adjacent fence posts, just as I thought to myself ‘that’s unusual’ I realised there was a llama standing between them.
That was more than a decade ago, but it still makes me laugh.
Always glad to hear an owl.
More owl action tonight on a super crisp night.
Great photos Tim.
Second one looks like "Oh no! been spotted"
We have a morepork/ruru in the bush that backs onto our garden. Named after it's call which unlike the "twit twoo" of the mother land sounds like it's saying "More pork" (I'm not so sure about this, I think those early settlers had a few too many IPAs):
Tonight, I’m guessing it’s that frisky time of year given the amount of bloody noise the owls are making around ours.
Sunday night at 11pm. Leaving my parent's home I heard an almost comically loud 'twit twooooooo' a few times a minute over 5 minutes from a nearby wood. There was a 'cheeping' soon after bit wasn't sure if too early for chicks. The volume of the twit twoo was amazing!
In the absence of having an eagle to hunt with in Kazakhstan a fine substitute would be a goshawk. Magnificent bird and what a challenge to train.
Just watching a Barn owl working the snowy field next to our house... beautiful 😁