Owls (Wild Only)
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Taken near Moorlinch in Somerset. :)
More pics in my new blog post here;
carlbovisnaturephotography.blogspot.com/2018/07/little-te...
This owl flew to get away from me but, surprisingly, looped back and flew right back towards the utility pole near where I was standing. Thus, it apparently forgot what it was doing. It flew right at me until it got very close, realized its error and pealed off, giving me in-close side shots too. I wish that this kind of behaviour were more common.
The rich baritone hooting of the Barred Owl is a characteristic sound in southern swamps, where members of a pair often will call back and forth to each other. Although the bird is mostly active at night, it will also call and even hunt in the daytime. Only a little smaller than the Great Horned Owl, the Barred Owl is markedly less aggressive, and competition with its tough cousin may keep the Barred out of more open woods. One of the first things you will notice with the Barred Owl is that they appear to have no ears. They aren’t visible from the top of their head as they are with other species of owls. They are brownish in color as well as shades of gray.
The Barred Owl hunts by night or day, perhaps most at dawn and dusk. Seeks prey by watching from perch, also by flying low through forest; may hover before dropping to clutch prey in talons. The Barred Owl eats mostly, small mammals, rabbits, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and invertebrates. They are known to wade in water to catch crayfish.
The belly feathers of some Barred Owls are pink. This coloring may be the result of eating a lot of crayfish.
I found this one in the Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area in Osceola County, Florida.
Nice to catch this one on top of a skinny perch.
Sturgeon County, Alberta.
Added to my Canada 150 Album.
This Barred Owl gave us a delightful experience during a visit to Brazos Bend State Park. We inadvertently flushed it from next to the water up into a low tree where he sat for quite some time while we took way too many photos.
Strix varia
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Hurricane Harvey has not only disrupted people but wildlife as well. We are seeing fewer birds and small animals than we normally see. We went looking for Burrowing Owls in an area where we saw 9 in one day last year and this year we were very happy to find one. Hope he brings his friends with him next year as his food supplies get back to normal.
Thorhild County. Alberta.
Yesterday I posted a shot of a Barred Owl on a fence post that had a caterpillar on it. I sent the image to U of A Entomologist John Acorn for an explanation and identification. Several contacts have asked for an update. John went out and collected it today. Here is his reply:
"The caterpillar has been dead for some time, killed by parasites. There are multiple exit holes where parasites emerged from the host's body. Most of the hairs (setae) have worn off, so it is not easy to recognize, but I think it is probably Acronicta dactylica, the Fingered Dagger Moth."
Barn Owl - Tyto Alba
Like most owls, the barn owl is nocturnal, relying on its acute sense of hearing when hunting in complete darkness. It often becomes active shortly before dusk and can sometimes be seen during the day when relocating from one roosting site to another. In Britain, on various Pacific Islands and perhaps elsewhere, it sometimes hunts by day. This practice may depend on whether the owl is mobbed by other birds if it emerges in daylight. However, in Britain, some birds continue to hunt by day even when mobbed by such birds as magpies, rooks and black-headed gulls, such diurnal activity possibly occurring when the previous night has been wet making hunting difficult. By contrast, in southern Europe and the tropics, the birds seem to be almost exclusively nocturnal, with the few birds that hunt by day being severely mobbed.
Barn owls are not particularly territorial but have a home range inside which they forage. For males in Scotland this has a radius of about 1 km (0.6 mi) from the nest site and an average size of about 300 hectares. Female home ranges largely coincide with that of their mates. Outside the breeding season, males and females usually roost separately, each one having about three favoured sites in which to conceal themselves by day, and which are also visited for short periods during the night. Roosting sites include holes in trees, fissures in cliffs, disused buildings, chimneys and haysheds and are often small in comparison to nesting sites. As the breeding season approaches, the birds move back to the vicinity of the chosen nest to roost.
Once a pair-bond has been formed, the male will make short flights at dusk around the nesting and roosting sites and then longer circuits to establish a home range. When he is later joined by the female, there is much chasing, turning and twisting in flight, and frequent screeches, the male's being high-pitched and tremulous and the female's lower and harsher. At later stages of courtship, the male emerges at dusk, climbs high into the sky and then swoops back to the vicinity of the female at speed. He then sets off to forage. The female meanwhile sits in an eminent position and preens, returning to the nest a minute or two before the male arrives with food for her. Such feeding behaviour of the female by the male is common, helps build the pair-bond and increases the female's fitness before egg-laying commences.
Barn owls are cavity nesters. They choose holes in trees, fissures in cliff faces, the large nests of other birds such as the hamerkop (Scopus umbretta) and, particularly in Europe and North America, old buildings such as farm sheds and church towers. Buildings are preferred to trees in wetter climates in the British Isles and provide better protection for fledglings from inclement weather. Trees tend to be in open habitats rather than in the middle of woodland and nest holes tend to be higher in North America than in Europe because of possible predation.
This bird has suffered declines through the 20th century and is thought to have been adversely affected by organochlorine pesticides such as DDT in the 1950s and '60s.
Nocturnal birds like the barn owl are poorly monitored by the Breeding Bird Survey and, subject to this caveat, numbers may have increased between 1995-2008.
Barn owls are a Schedule 1 and 9 species.
Population:
UK breeding:
4,000 pairs
Europe:
110-220,000 pairs
This lovely Owl didnt mind me being there
As we were heading to the car, it sat there in fading light. Giving me lot of time to get a shot to come out right. Thank you, Owl!
As always, many thanks for taking the time to view, fave and comment. That's very much appreciated
The barred owl (Strix varia), or northern barred owl, is a true owl native to eastern North America. Adults are large, and are brown to grey with barring on the chest. Barred owls have expanded their range to the west coast of the United States, where they are considered invasive. Mature forests are their preferred habitat, but they are also found in open woodland areas. Their diet consists mainly of small mammals, but they are also known to prey upon other small animals such as reptiles and amphibians. This was taken at the CRC.
From a great day at the coast
As always, many thanks for taking the time to view, fave and comment. That's very much appreciated
Stay safe
Snowy Owl
Many thanks to all those who View, Comment and or Fave My Photos... It is greatly appreciated... Roy
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A Northern Pygmy-Owl in Ketchum Idaho. The owl was looking at some Black-billed Magpies that were pestering and pecking him. He finally flew away. I hope it got some peace from the annoying Magpies.
I was very excited that we had an opportunity to see and photograph this Striped Owl during our trip to Costa Rica this month. I think it is such a pretty bird. What I was particularly surprised by was that this bird was out on a rainy night. In my past experience I have found it quite rare to see owls of any kind out in the rain. If you look closely you can actually see some of the water droplets on the owl’s head in this photo.
We will be doing this trip again next spring, if you think you might be interested more information is available here: www.texastargetbirds.com/group-photo-trips/2018-costa-ric...
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Pseudoscops clamator