Owl grabs fish from my pond
- Thread starter Mike A.
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Parley
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Speaking of owls, we had this one on the roof across the street yesterday. The crows were going crazy and were dive bombing him. There must have been 50 to a 100 of them. They were making all kinds of racket and that is what got our attention. We were thinking a coyote or maybe a hawk, but this is the guy they were harassing. By the way he stayed there until it got dark and then he flew off. I was thinking he was using that roof vent for protection as it protected his back side. The photo was taken from one of my PTZ cameras.
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Looks like several of your neighbor's roof tiles are busted up enough to let in some water.
Mike A.
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Not necessarily. Guess on my part too with not much of expertise. Main reason that I think Barred is that's what I've guessed in the past. They have a very distinctive blood curdling scream that they do at times. Sounds like a woman screaming. LOUD! Scares the crap out of me every time I'm out in the yard at night and they do it. lolI believe that is a Great Horned Owl.
Edit: I think I may have overstated my level of expertise.
Lord, yes....I've heard other owl types do that...it sounds like the woman is being gutted alive!
Parley
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I noticed that too. I will pass the word along.Looks like several of your neighbor's roof tiles are busted up enough to let in some water.
Terri Underhill
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OMG lucky you! Snowy owls are rare in California. It needs to be documented. Yours looks like a female. About every five years or so there is an irruption of Snowy's. When there is a baby boom of lemmings, more young snowy owls survive causing them to migrate south from Canada for more food.
Terri Underhill
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Most definitely a barred owl.
Parley
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A number of years ago a friend and I were exploring Cloverdale, New Mexico. It is a ghost town in Southwest, New Mexico and only a few miles from the border with Mexico. At the time there were two buildings standing, and this big white owl flew out of one of them as I approached the building. Looked like a Snowy Owl to me and I was greatly surprised to see one that far South.
Another surprise for me was on another trip in the same area but in the Portal, Arizona area this time. We were heading West up the road out of Portal and this Gila Monster crossed the dirt road. Of course, we stopped to look at it as I had never seen one in the wild before and neither had my Friend who grew up in Tucson. The kicker is that Portal is 4760 feet in elevation and this was somewhat higher in elevation. I never knew that Gila Monster's lived up that high in elevation.
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Terri Underhill
Getting comfortable
You didn't say what time of the year it was but your white owl in New Mexico was most likely a barn owl. And Portal AZ is one of the few places where you can see as many as 12 species of hummingbirds during migration. It is awesome!
Parley
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^^^^^ I do not remember the time of year in Cloverdale. I know it was not Winter. You could well be right if Barn Owls come in white.
Mike A.
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Thanks. You look like you know what you're talking about. ; ) Thought so based on appearance and calls but wasn't sure.
Speaking of calls, what is that horrific scream that they do? I've only found one good recording of it and can never find when I try to explain it to someone. Wish that I could. @TonyR had it about right as sounding like a woman being gutted alive. Very loud rising scream then trailing off some at the end. They seem to do it out of the blue with no other calling around it. Usually just before flying off as I've seen it but I have had them sit and do it for a few times too. I'm usually running in the other direction after they do so... ; )
Parley
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One more owl story. This time I was out in the desert about 20 miles South of Desert Center, California, along the old Bradshaw trail. Anyways I am sitting on the edge of a small arroyo and this Burring Owl lands about 5 feet to the side of me. I kept as still as I could and just watched it. After a few minutes it flew off. I guess it did not run across too many people in his habitat.
Terri Underhill
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I think you must be talking about the great horned owl begging call. Here's a link, I think it is the fifth call down. Great Horned Owl Sounds, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The Barred owls have a call during breading that reminds me of a jungle of monkeys hooping and hollering. Very annoying and impossible to sleep through. The most horrifying call I have ever heard is one from a barn owl. I could not find a call to add here that is a shrill as what I heard, but it is terrifying to hear. A friend and I went exploring a abandoned barn and she climbed a ladder to a loft to see if there were barn owl chicks. There were nine making this god awful ear piercing sound and clacking their bills. I thought they took her face off. Go down to the Barn Owl and listen. Learn to Identify Five Owls by Their Calls. The great horned owl is my spirit bird, so I would be remiss if I didn't share a link to one of my many videos of my nesting pair of great horned owls. They lay their eggs the first of Feb. Hopefully they will nest again this season in a new location I prepared for them since the tree their nesting in is about to fall. If you like wildlife, take a gander and be amazed
This is Jack and Carol. Once Carol starts sitting on eggs I pay to stream video 24/7 on my website since so many people start watching. Last season Jack brought in 21 rabbits to Carol, Ukie and Bubo the owlets. enjoy!
Mike A.
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This is much different. I'll have to try to find an example of it and post back. If you imagine a woman in your yard screaming at the top of her lungs that's kind of the idea. Very loud. I'm sure that it's the same owls.
Nice capture. I'd like to set up a cam in that same tree to watch various things that make a hollow in it home. I've had owls, raccoons, possum, flying squirrels, regular squirrels, etc. all adopt it in various years. Keep thinking that I'll do it but haven't gotten around to it.
Mike A.
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Yeah, I've done that with fishing line in the past and tried various other things. Works pretty well but ends up being more of a continuing pain for me than it's worth to counter what's a relatively rare event . Fish are 5 for $1. Easier to just let nature take its course now and then. That's the first time that I've ever seen an owl do it. My main threat are herons that usually come in early Spring. One thing that helped that a lot was to sink a piece of drain pipe where the fish can hide when threatened.
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