Owl in my cedar tree

[sixdogs]

Here's a photo of an owl in my back yard in a cedar (Northern White Cedar or Arborvitae) tree. He's about five ft off the ground and there are a bunch of mouse skeletons under the tree. The eye is pretty imtimidating. The photo was actually taken last year and it never occured to me to post it here--duh.
On the skeletons, I was told they eat their prey whole and eliminate what doesn't digest. Photos in next post below.
I left this photo full size so you can get a clearer image. It's a big file.

 

[sixdogs]

Here's the mouse remains. Just the skull and some mouse fur nap. Note the yellow mouse teeth. Ugh.
Not sure if he ever returned but a did see a big pile of bird feather yesterday so I hope maybe he can grab a few more rodents for me.

 

[EddieWalker]

Amazing Picture!!!! Very Nice.

It's just about impossible to see an owl out in the wild, and that's just a great shot!!!

Eddie

 

[GolfAddict]

Very cool!!

 

[bullbreaker]

Thanks for taking time out to post that,neat pic(owl) !

Boone

 

[jinman]

Amazing Picture!!!! Very Nice.

It's just about impossible to see an owl out in the wild, and that's just a great shot!!!

Eddie

Eddie, I'm not sure if it's just your location, but we see owls quite often. They tend to fly very low through the woods just before sunset. Perhaps you just to have to have an eye for spotting them.

 

[beppington]

Cool! I like owls. Here's one in my parents' tree. He swoops down from the tree into a grass area & grabs something who knows what, then back into a tree on the other side of the grass area; repeat until full I guess.

 

[s219]

Owls are really amazing. I have studied the aerodynamics and acoustics of owls for aircraft research, and they have some real interesting evolutionary features in their wings and body.

First are the noise aspects. Because of downy under feathers and clever wing edge feathers, owls are silent to their prey. All the noise emitted by the owl in flight is low frequency, muffled flaps. This is all lower in frequency than the hearing range of small prey (mainly rodents). So the prey never hears the owl coming. On top of that, the owl's hearing range is the same as the rodents, so the owl does not hear his own noise and can focus completely on listening to the prey.

Second are the aerodynamics. Owls have some very clever feather shapes and flying habits that allow them to fly at very steep angles of attack, so they can basically come barreling in at about 45 degrees angle of approach (that's generally 10-20 times steeper than a typical airplane can land at without gimmicks like thrust vectoring).

Between the steep flight angle and the silent operation, owls are extremely stealthy -- they are nature's original stealth aircraft. The first sign prey will have that an owl is present is physical contact, when the owl's talons grab it. So that's how something so big and seemingly conspicuous can nail targets like mice so easily. It's really amazing.

 

[bullbreaker]

Bepp awesome pics ! :thumbsup:

Boone

 

[sixdogs]

Owls are really amazing. ..y. It's really amazing.....

When we lived in Maine we would often see the tell-tale wing-print marks in the snow where an owl grabbed a partridge. Once we had one grab something maybe 20 ft in front of us while we were snowmobiling. Scared the living #@*& out of us. Plus, we had a Great Horned Owl in our barn a couple times and once had a Snowy Owl in a tree out back. Their wing span is huge and heir talons way longer than you would think.

 

[jimmyj]

Nice pics everyone. Yes, seeing an owl is a true treat. Once when I first moved here I was up at the neighbor's place and it was pitch dark. An owl grabbed one of his chickens, and the only way we knew is we heard a chicken squacking as it went through the sky over us.

 

[polo1665]

When we first moved to our property we had a pair of Barred Owls that frequented the area. We would here them at night during their mating season, their calls are really quite eerie. It took me some time to figure out what they were. If interested, google Barred Owl recordings and listen in.

 

[weldermike]

I had one land on a branch even with my head one morning in a treestand while hunting. Didnt know what to do, so I turned my head quick and thought id stare him down. He wasnt scared at first, then started bopping his head tryin to scare me off. After about 20seconds of this he flew away sqwuakin. I said whew, thank god hes gone, about a minute later he came back and landed on a branch right in front of me, stareing me down doin the head bob act again. He eventually flew away, but was funny that he re thought what just happened and came back. The funny part of the whole story is the prevoius winter I put out a trail camera and got a couple hundred pics of him till the batts went dead, I was the knucklehead who put up a ladder stand in his house. Same tree never realized it. He was enjoying his new home till I showed up! LOL

 

[Combustix]

Great pictures! I remember once we were about 5 miles off the coast of Kauai and I walked out on the wing and sitting on the gyro repeater was a huge owl. He took off and flew up over the top of the ship, I went back in to tell the two guys in the wheel house what I saw when on the opposite wing door the owl landed and ran into the wheel house. It reached the helm were the two guys were standing and talking and leaped into the air to fly away and hit the overhead, and came back down, by now the two guys were aware of the owl and were running in different directions, the owl raced right past me went out the door I came in and leaped into the air and we never saw it again. This all happened right around dawn. Was pretty exciting for a few minutes.

 

[weldermike]

My buddy got all tore up by one in the dark in his treestand one morning. He was wearing a face mask and he said his head must have been sihloeted against the sky and the owl thought his head was a roosted turkey!

 

[PatasColo]

At my work, we have a "campus" of 7 buildings and a quadrangle yard inside, where plenty of bunnies enjoy the well-groomed lawn. There is also a large owl nesting box installed 3 or 4 stories up on one building... at least 2 feet on a side. Every year, there are owlets (and parents) to be seen on campus.

This year, the parents had 3, which is a lot! (Usually 2, and it seems often only 1 survives into adulthood). Here is a picture of one of the owlets, and one of the parents. I have a pic of all three owlets together on a ledge, but it was pretty bad quality, so I won't post that one unless someone asks.

It's pretty cool to be leaving the buildings at dusk, and see owls perched at the roofpeaks, hooing away!
-Mitch

 

[creekbend]

Truly enjoyed all the pictures posted. Thanks for posting.:thumbsup:

 

[ArtMech]

At my work, we have a "campus" of 7 buildings and a quadrangle yard inside, where plenty of bunnies enjoy the well-groomed lawn. There is also a large owl nesting box installed 3 or 4 stories up on one building... at least 2 feet on a side. Every year, there are owlets (and parents) to be seen on campus.

This year, the parents had 3, which is a lot! (Usually 2, and it seems often only 1 survives into adulthood). Here is a picture of one of the owlets, and one of the parents. I have a pic of all three owlets together on a ledge, but it was pretty bad quality, so I won't post that one unless someone asks.

It's pretty cool to be leaving the buildings at dusk, and see owls perched at the roofpeaks, hooing away!
-Mitch

Yes, show please the 3 owlets together (whatever the quality is). Can you describe the way how and where to install the owl nesting boxes?
Really love them.

 

[PatasColo]

Yes, show please the 3 owlets together (whatever the quality is). Can you describe the way how and where to install the owl nesting boxes?
Really love them.

Hey saracenas... looks like you're in Lithuania. Is the very cold weather impacting you there now?

By request, here's the three owlets in a row, plus a couple more pics. I have no pic of the nestbox, but look at the pic that shows the corner eave. The nestbox is mounted under the corner eave of another building, just like the eave you see in the pic. The one shown is two stories up, but where the nestbox is mounted, it's about 3 stories (probably 35 feet off the ground). As I mentioned before, there is a healthy population of rabbits (with babies) in the courtyard, which I imagine is a big plus for the owls.

I've used birdhouse plans from this site before: Great Horned Owl (See links about midway down the page). The size of the box and hole are important. The nest here for the great horned owls is about 2 feet on a side.

[P.S. If you want to see another cool bird, look for my post from yesterday with the red-tailed hawk in a tree over our driveway.]

 

[ArtMech]

Hey saracenas... looks like you're in Lithuania. Is the very cold weather impacting you there now?

By request, here's the three owlets in a row, plus a couple more pics. I have no pic of the nestbox, but look at the pic that shows the corner eave. The nestbox is mounted under the corner eave of another building, just like the eave you see in the pic. The one shown is two stories up, but where the nestbox is mounted, it's about 3 stories (probably 35 feet off the ground). As I mentioned before, there is a healthy population of rabbits (with babies) in the courtyard, which I imagine is a big plus for the owls.

I've used birdhouse plans from this site before: Great Horned Owl (See links about midway down the page). The size of the box and hole are important. The nest here for the great horned owls is about 2 feet on a side.

[P.S. If you want to see another cool bird, look for my post from yesterday with the red-tailed hawk in a tree over our driveway.]

Yeah, me and my wife caught a cold.
But now it's gonna be warmer and warmer ... Meanwhile it's from -6C at night up to 0C at a day time.
I've opened a thread about unusual extreme cold at the beginning of February in my area http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/233119-todays-horse-race-under-frost.html. Thanks for God we already stood sharp frost.

Thank you very much for good info and nice pics and link.
I saw the flying owls at night in my farm a few years ago. But after my forest cleaning works I didn't see them anymore. Probably because of that job. So now I'm dreaming about how to retrieve them back. We also have some population of rabbits around here.
Hope your advices will help.
Thanks again.