Owls

I've been living on L.I. my entire life, and have never seen an owl in the wild. Now we have a family of 6, 4 younguns, and 2 adults visiting our yard every day at dusk. They put on an awesome show flying from tree to tree, landing on our lawn (15 feet away), and generally hanging out.

Does anyone else have any cool wildlife venture into their yard?

Owls are cool.

I wish I had an owl in my backyard. He could eat the rats that've been mooching off my bird feeder. I used have a raccoon that would show up for late night sushi at the fishpond (until I got smarter fish). These city raccoons get fat & lazy and if they have to work too hard for a meal they move on to the next place.

Raffertiki-I can definitely relate!Last winter,we had Mom and Dad great horned owl having a "good time"in the neighbor's tree on a branch that overhangs our yard.It was wonderful to see them at twilight and hear them hooting to each other.We thought that was great,until we saw two baby owls in the tree!What an experience!They were very cautious at first,creeping up the branch,then creeping down the branch.They soon graduated to awkwardly flitting from one close branch to another,with Mom and Dad keeping an eagle eye out for their little ones.What we didn't know was that little owls tend to fall out of trees,and clunk to the ground.They would straighten up,shake their heads,and then head back up the trunk.Time passed,and they all flew off.This past winter,Mom and Dad were back to the "courting tree",but didn't make a nest in the same.Owls are squatters-appropriating another bird's nest,and are very messy,so they don't tend to come to it.They're wonderful,aren't they?Oh,we also have a rooster who lives down the block,but he must be a late sleeper,because when he starts crowing,the sun is already up a ways.If you can,take some pics and post them(of the owls,not the rooster).

the only wildlife in long beach would be the decaying prostitutes trying to creech their way into your locked vehicles at night.

one day, zoos will have polar bear bone 2D exhibits and live crackheads chomping on Krispy Kremes behind 1.000" thick clear acrylic walls.

Karl Rove once said the only real wildlife is a willing group of young boys...

i don't get it... an owl sure would be cool, yup!

I believe they are called Monk parrots. They have been making their way into the New Orleans area for some time and seem to be holding up very well. Talk about noisy but gives the area a little more tropical feel. They have been hitting the palm trees around the neighborhood.

I have also seen owls out by Lake Pontchartrain. We also have had not so wild ducks show up in the yard.

Where I grew up we had owls, coyotes, feral horses, burro, and the odd Coatimuni. There were Romes of huge Gilas, and the odd camel sighting, but I think it was BS.

Not long ago it seemed there was very little in the way of wildlife here in the South Bay, but in the past few months there have been several Cougars in the neighborhood, and I saw a deer(western coastal deer)...sizable for here...maybe 4' at the shoulder just up the street.

Other than that. it's the usual Raccoons on trash night, Opossums, lizards, and a periodical skunk.

The neighbor lady feeds ducks, and most hours of light, there are 15 ducks in her pool, and maybe 5 more waiting for some to leave so they can get in. (they wait on top of our lawn mower shed)

I started feeding crows a few years ago, as their antics are quite funny. The adults seem to know whatever I leave for them is food and will take what-ever the largest object is. The sub-adults only know food if they have eaten it before and thus only take what they recognize...The adults teach them what is food... (nuts, corn, bird kibble, milk bones eggs) they actually line them up and show then how to open nuts or eggs...

Seeing crows fly around with milk bones make my morning.

Gigantalope-you HAVE to tell everyone about your chicken!

For many years my parents owned a small home in Eagle River, Wisconsin (I'm sure CongaTiki knows where that is :) ). They had a family of Bald Eagles that lived on their lake front property. So in the mornings and evenings we would all sit on their pier and watch the Eagles play in the air and sometimes they would swoop down to pluck enormous fish out of the water! They don't live there anymore, but I will never forget that.

There are barn owls all over my neighborhood. They were nesting in a spectacular Canary palm that was installed in front of a model home, and the nest lings were making a spectacular screamfest every dusk for weeks until they fledged. When the home was sold, the new owners took out that palm. I would've paid extra for an owl-housing palm tree! I still can't believe they took it out.

I've seen a great horned owl in the wild once, which landed about 6 feet away from me in a field. I know they're all over the place, because new neighbors are always "losing" their outdoor cats within weeks of letting them out at night.

There are the usual suspects in the area, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, quail, kildeer, barn swallows, but the most amusing are the wild turkeys. Last week a bunch of them (10 or so) were crossing a dangerous street, and most of the traffic was stopped, and a woman was trying to drive around them, and she was so busy trying to get around the turkeys (and causing a bigger traffic mess than the turkeys) that she didn't see the police car nearby. He pulled her over, and I hope gave her a ticket for whatever that category of driving falls under. "Counter-Effective Turkey Weaving" in morning rush hour?

There's an ongoing romance at my stable between a Bantam rooster (he's like a 'Mini Me' of a rooster, 1/4 the size of a turkey)) and a female wild turkey. When she sees him, she comes running out of the shrubs, and will bravely go past any person, horse, mule, cats, anything to follow him around.

The areas around me that have the turkeys have people of opposing viewpoints that dislike the turkeys, and then the other side that I refer to as the "turkey sympathizers", who put out trays of water for them in their backyards, and escape routes through their back fences and such. I can't believe anyone would complain about wildlife when they moved to the area partly because of the open spaces and trees.

I've nicknamed the hummingbird that is the most frequent to our feeder "Renaldo". If I leave the screen door open when I take the feeder in for cleaning and refilling, he darts into the house about 6 feet and out again to where the feeder hangs, scolding me the entire time. He also likes to perch on my passion flower vine at sunset, where he can dart up to the feeder and scare away other humminbirds... I suspect he has a drinking problem.

Living in South Florida has provided me some interesting animal sightings in my back yard- Iguanas, cuban lizards, snakes, a nieghbors Amazon Parrot once... The most interesting was not-so-exotic.

About a year ago I had some possums living in my attic. So I borrowed a friends trap and set it up. Early that evening I caught one of the ugly, critters. My family (wife and 2 little girls) was concerned for the animal's well-being because we were about to get hammered by a pretty bad thunderstorms. So, I went up on the roof and covered the cage with a tarp so it wouldn't get wet. Early the next morning, I took the trap down and tried to figure out where to put the trap in my Cherokee. I couldn't put him on top - it would get wind blasted - so I put it inside. Holy crap do those things stink!! I suffered my way out to the Everglades where I was going to set him free. (NOTE: The Everglades are surrounded by a levee and right by the levee was an airboat beach.) I parked on the levee and proceeded to get the possum out of the cage - did I mention that those things STINK!! Great care was taken not to harm or traumatize the possum. It made its way away from me and down the levee to where the airboats park. All the special treatment paid off as the animal made its way back to nature - I was so proud. I grabbed the cage and placed it back in my Jeep when I here SPLASH, SPLASH, SPLASH. I quickly turned around and the possum was gone, there was nothing left but a few ripples in the water. All of the extra care and delicate handling of this animal, and it ends up as breakfast for some Alligator. I WAS PISSED!! Not that the possum got eaten - but because I didn't get to see it get eaten. I caught 2 more possums that week and none of them had the same result. Mother Nature can be cruel bitch sometimes.

Just thought I'd share that you all.

We have all kinds of birds and animals. My backyard is a dedicated backyard wildlife habitat. We have bushes plants and pond all set up just for the critters. We are a bit of a novelty since we live in very close to town. We have have a sweet couple of Mallards that use our pond each spring, and last fall a passing Heron stopped in for a free lunch. Now we have a bats, which I like as they help eat the mosquito's. Raccoons are out in force each Monday night ( garbage night)
I was saddened today to see a squashed red fox in the street.
The school I work at on the other side of town sits next to a natural pond, and a thick oak Forest. We have lots of deer, coyote, and we have just spotted what we think is a very large owl. I'll have to ask our resident natural science whiz what type it is, but we have watched it on break each morning, going at it with a couple of large crows. I don't know who starts the fight, but so far the crows have been victorious, chasing away the owl. We are very blessed to live in an area that has such a large animal population.
It's going to be a hard winter for them though as we have been in a drought situation for most of the year.

I was reading through this topic this morning and wouldn't you know it I looked out the window and I see this...

...I was kinda pissed because there was a mother and another fawn but the damn battery died on the digital camera before I could get them. We have herds of deer that roam around our neighborhood not to mention foxes, raccoons, opossum, groundhogs, owls, and hawks and of course squirrel... lots and lots of squirrels. This year the wooded section of our property went crazy with raspberry bushes and the deer have been making regular visits to strip the plants clean.

We have a pair of Great Horned Owls in our neighborhood, they're always silent 'til they've both caught a bunny, then they hoot for a while. They do the same early in the morning, just before dawn. We've got plenty Red Tails & a Kestrel that occasionally visits, Anna's & Alan's Hummingbirds, various Finches, and a Mockingbird that screeches all night. I wish one of the Hawks would eat that damn Mockingbird. Four legged visitors are mostly Bunnys, but we get Mule Deer, Coyotes, Ground Squirrels & lots of Skunks (enough for us to call the late spring "Flat Skunk Season").

Almost in my work's backyard;
C Bobby's Owl Tree
(415) 776-9344 601 Post St AT Taylor
San Francisco, CA

a cool Owl Themed bar in SF!! http://www.theowltree.com/

plus it is across the street from the Tiki Bob pole!

On 2005-07-26 12:49, mrsmiley wrote:
a cool Owl Themed bar in SF!! http://www.theowltree.com/

Omigod! They have a live webcam and NO ONE is in there!

Well, we haven't seen the owls for about a week. I guessing they either got more bashful (smarter) or they have moved on. They did leave behind a cool feather though.

On a lighter note. I put 2 green frog tadpoles in my pond last year, and that was that last I saw of them. Until yesterday that is. I spotted one that was about twice the size, and had sprouted feet. [Insert sigh of relief] Very cool.

I live in the Mojave Desert, on 2 and a half acres of undeveloped desert land. We've got owls, bats, frogs, roadrunners, coyotes, quail, snakes, huge scorpions, and all manner of lizards (my favorites). You can bet we keep the tiki torches blazing at our luaus...one friend looked down to find a giant size scorpion right next to his foot!

After seeing this thread I had to post our owl pictures here, last year I went down to the local library and found plans for a barn owl box,. I built and installed it in a tree out back and a pair moved in the next day! This summer they have a bunch of young in there and they (the parents) are out hunting gophers and rats, hundreds of them. In the last few weeks a huge very stinky pile of pellets (compressed gophers) has accumulated below the box, luckily our Boston terrier loves to rut around in the remains.
Here are a few pictures of the occupants.

My very best alohas,

Bosko

I live on the 34th floor of a high rise apartment overlooking Central Park. There's a family of hawks there that fly around in the evening and we love watching them. They perch on our building and the ones around us. The other morning I was running through the park and as I was running over this bridge, I turned to my right and there was one of the hawks no more than three feet to my right on the handrail of the bridge. I could not believe my eyes. To my suprise it did not fly away but stared at me with these huge eyes. It was one of the most impressive things I have ever seen- very beautiful and majestic (and really big). NYC is the last place you would think an encounter like this is possible.

Great pics,Tikibosko!Owls are fascinating,but they are not known for their meticulous housekeeping.After they're gone,clean out the box really well,and they should appear again next year.Be careful doing so,because owls eat all sorts of vermin which carry God knows what.

Here's an article in today newspaper.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl-powls04aug04,0,2582211.story?coll=sfla-home-utility

On 2005-07-26 12:49, mrsmiley wrote:
Almost in my work's backyard;
C Bobby's Owl Tree
(415) 776-9344 601 Post St AT Taylor
San Francisco, CA

a cool Owl Themed bar in SF!! http://www.theowltree.com/

plus it is across the street from the Tiki Bob pole!

One of my fellow SF Scootergirls told me tonight that the owner of the Owl Tree died recently of cancer. I found an obit in today's Chronicle:

Article here

Robert 'Bobby' Cook -- owner of S.F. tavern that was full of owls

• Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer
  Thursday, October 12, 2006

Robert "Bobby" Cook was a man who liked owls.

He collected owl paintings, owl sculptures, owl knickknacks, owl stained-glass light fixtures and stuffed owls. He displayed them all inside C. Bobby's Owl Tree, a downtown San Francisco tavern that he owned for 30 years.

"He just enjoyed owls,'' said his son Michael Gardner. "Something about owls stuck in his mind.''

Mr. Cook, 75, died Sept. 14 of cancer in a San Francisco hospital, a few hours after mixing martinis for his regular customers and shutting down his bar for the night.

The bar, an old-fashioned neighborhood tavern on the southwest corner of Post and Taylor streets, was jammed with all things owl. Mr. Cook never met an owl he didn't like, so few patrons were able to avoid the stare of a stuffed, sculpted or painted bird.

Mr. Cook was a no-nonsense fellow behind the bar. He was friendly with good customers and a tough guy with troublemakers. He had many techniques for escorting a client from the premises, his son said -- all of them effective.

Patrons were encouraged to chat with Mr. Cook and, if they didn't, they could lose their barstools.

"You're not contributing anything to this conversation,'' Mr. Cook would tell a closemouthed customer. "Go sit at the other end of the bar.''

Mr. Cook, a native of Ongenburg, N.Y., became enchanted with owls as a boy after coming across a friendly owl during a hike in the woods and believing it to be a good luck omen.

He came to San Francisco in the 1950s and worked for two decades as a waiter at Gino's restaurant until he had saved enough money to buy the bar and go into business for himself.

The Owl Tree, where the jukebox played Frank Sinatra records and the house specialty was the martini and nobody ever got credit, reflected its owner's sensibilities.

"He made a lot of people happy,'' his son said. "And others, well, he knew how to escort 'em out and call the cops.''

Mr. Cook enjoyed listening to music, attending the theater and walking his beloved Jack Russell terrier, Chester.

He is survived by Gardner and by two other sons, Christopher and T.J. Cook, both of San Francisco.

A funeral will be held today at 7:30 p.m. at Halsted N. Gray-Carew and English mortuary, 1123 Sutter St., San Francisco.

[ Edited by: hanford_lemoore - Shortened URL - 2006-10-12 23:38 ]

On 2005-07-23 15:11, alohabros wrote:
the only wildlife in long beach would be the decaying prostitutes trying to creech their way into your locked vehicles at night.

I think that is a separate species called "used to toot."

Last week a huge owl swooped up from my pond when I took the dog out for a pee. He landed on the neighbour's clothesline pole, the biggest one I've ever seen in town.

Within the same week I spotted a ceramic owl in the jewelery case at my neighbourhood Sally Ann(Salvation Army Thrift Store). The price was $80! The woman who manned the till informed me that she checks all her merchandise online before pricing it! I said 'What is this, the Salvation Boutique?!' Purely disgusted, I've been avoiding the place ever since. No wonder the prices have skyrocketed in the recent months.

BAH!