There's an owl in my neighborhood, I can hear him....

[cbdo2007]

Whooooooo.....who who...........................whooooooooo.....who who.........

I hear him every morning between 8-9 and then in the evenings between 7-8pm.

I'm going to go out with my camera tonight and see if I can find him. I love seeing owls just out and about.

I'm in the KC area by the way. Very suburban so not usually any cool wildlife in our neighborhood

[DFW]

1. Back in Texas, there is an owl waiting for me.

I can't even get back to North America right now, much less Dallas, but when I get there--this is a very rare species. Only three known to exist:
[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[cbdo2007]

4. That is a beaut!!

[DFW]

5. It was made by an old friend of mine 40 years ago

He is gone now, and I never even knew these things existed. He only made three of them, and this one was made for the legendary Leo Kottke (verified by Heritage from the serial number). In 1979, I was only 27, and not exactly rolling in the kind of money needed to afford a guitar like that on a whim.

[MontanaMama]

2. Tell us if you find him/her.

It’s good to have owls out and about. They’re eating mice and rats! I live on an wilderness/suburban interface...lost of great horned owls and sometimes great gray owls. I have neighbors who get Pygmy owls here and there....I’m so envious! I’ve never seen a Pygmy in the wild.

[cbdo2007]

3. That sounds cool! Yeah pretty sure this is Great Horned...won't know until this evening now

so I'll keep you posted. I would love to see them regularly. About once per year one will perch on the big tree right out my window but my camera always scares them off lol.

[MontanaMama]

7. I have a chicken coop that

unfortunately houses mice too. I love owls that come around at night because I know they’re feasting at night while the chickens and I sleep. 🦉

[2naSalit]

8. Many owls have distinct calls

the one you describe looks to be Great Horned Owl. I got some daytime pictures of one last October, on a tree branch preening in the sun. In some pictures it looks like a cat!

Some time ago I lived in a small city with lots of trees in the neighborhood. The city had been dealing with an infestation of crows so they brought in several GHOs, one of which nested in a Blue Spruce tree right outside my cabin. One evening in November I was in my basement office and I could hear, over music mind you, several owls calling. There were at least five distinct voices in their calls, but one was really different as it was like a baritone compared to the rest. Somehow my mind envisioned the appearance of the low voiced owl to be a huge biird with a likeness of Edward G. Robinson in a gangster part with a cigar stub hanging from it's beak.
The calls went round in a Tenor voicing with the response of a very low "Hoo." It was fascinating as they were dispersed among the trees surrounding my yard. The calling went on for well over an hour.

Since I was still in college, the next day I sought out an ornithologist friend and inquired about the event. I was told that it was a mating event and the one with the deep voice was the female being courted. They mate in November around here.

I hope you can get a clear picture of the owl as they are amazing looking birds.

[Tanuki]

6. Richard Wilbur poem "A Barred Owl"

https://www.poetryoutloud.org/poem/a-barred-owl/

"The warping night air having brought the boom

Of an owl’s voice into her darkened room,

We tell the wakened child that all she heard

Was an odd question from a forest bird,

Asking of us, if rightly listened to,

“Who cooks for you?” and then “Who cooks for you?”


Words, which can make our terrors bravely clear,

Can also thus domesticate a fear,

And send a small child back to sleep at night

Not listening for the sound of stealthy flight

Or dreaming of some small thing in a claw

Borne up to some dark branch and eaten raw."


Richard Wilbur, "A Barred Owl" from Mayflies: New Poems and Translations. Copyright © 2000 by Richard Wilbur.  Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Source: Mayflies: New Poems and Translations (Harcourt Inc., 2000)

[cbdo2007]

10. Beautiful poem! Thank you for the response.

[tblue37]

11. Wilbur is one of my favorite poets. nt

[yonder]

9. We have a nesting pair of Western Screech Owls

that have set up shop in our neighborhood this season. Usually I hear their "bouncing ball" call (and both are different). But the other night one flew to its mate in a tree above me and I got to hear a greeting voice: a soft and sweet sort of whinny, like a horse but much quieter. First time for me.

[cbdo2007]

15. Never heard one of those before, I'll have to look it up!

Sometimes GHOs will make a loud screech noise...I had one doing that in my backyard a few years ago too. It sounded like a cat getting squashed under a rock or something awful....like the typical "Who...............who who SCREECH!" Like the screech happened very quickly after the double who. It was too dark to see so I definitely had to look that one up!

[mnhtnbb]

12. I used to hear the owls in the woods of my neighborhood

in Chapel Hill, NC. One spring we had one that was hanging out in the daytime on the same tree on the back of our hill.

Here's the best shot of him I was ever able to get using a small digital camera in 2011.

[Brainfodder]

13. Your description sounds more like a mourning dove

Is this it?

[cbdo2007]

14. Nope, definitely an owl...I used to live in a house with doves so heard them often

It is similar but this is definitely an owl with the initial "Who........................who who.........."

Rather than the morning dove which I would describe as "eeweeeew.......woo woo woo...."

[cbdo2007]

16. UPDATE - I DID NOT SEE HIM

Hey folks, I know you are all eagerly awaiting an update.

It was pretty rainy here yesterday afternoon and evening so I was wondering if that might dampen my opportunity and sure enough, I didn't hear the owl call last evening and my dog and I listened for a good 30 minutes in the cold rain.

I actually hear him better in the morning between 9-10am CST but I always have conference calls during the week. Hopefully this weekend I can really focus on this and catch a good pic. This owl really has me intrigued! Will keep you posted.

[lastlib]

17. I'm in eastern Jackson county--we've had some bald eagles around here this winter.

My brother has a radio tower on our hill--we have lots of owls hanging around it, so I hear them frequently. It's the rural part of the county, and I frequently see deer, turkeys, raccoons--and occasionally foxes and coyotes.