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Baitball Blogger

(46,576 posts)
Tue Apr 9, 2013, 11:22 PM Apr 2013

Hooting owls.

You always hear one side of an owl hooting exchange, but rarely do you get to hear the response. It's nothing like you would expect to hear. I heard it for the first time the other night. I thought it sounded like a mourning dove defending its nest, but the back and forth exchange had a pattern to it. From the distance an owl hooted in the way we've all come to expect, and then, from somewhere in the backyard, there was a response that sounded like a cranky bird, not an owl at all. Yet, it could only have been another owl because it wouldn't make sense that another bird would want to attract attention to itself.

Has anyone else heard this kind of back and forth?

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Hooting owls. (Original Post) Baitball Blogger Apr 2013 OP
Barred owls have extensive conversations back and forth csziggy Apr 2013 #1
We have owls hooting all night here in Upstate New York. It's wonderful! In_The_Wind Apr 2013 #2
The barred owls here talk most of the summer csziggy Apr 2013 #3
We had Great Horned Owls at our old house. In_The_Wind Apr 2013 #4
Before the plantation land east of us was developed we had csziggy Apr 2013 #6
We moved last September. Now we needs new screens. In_The_Wind Apr 2013 #7
Thanks! Appreciate the information! Baitball Blogger Apr 2013 #8
We have stereo olddots Apr 2013 #5
We have DolbySurround sound..... lastlib Apr 2013 #10
Oh, yeah! Almost every night. lastlib Apr 2013 #9
On my last two jobsites... Callmecrazy Apr 2013 #11
Me? All the time. Owl Apr 2013 #12
When I first moved here 4 years ago, I heard one all the time. Loryn Apr 2013 #13
I have... a la izquierda Apr 2013 #14

csziggy

(34,120 posts)
1. Barred owls have extensive conversations back and forth
Wed Apr 10, 2013, 12:41 AM
Apr 2013

When they get going, it can sound like a troupe of monkeys carrying on. On some of the Bigfoot shows, they claim barred owl calls are bigfoot calls.

Here is a good Cornell Lab of Ornithology discussion of the types of calls barred owls make.



ETA - this is even better for what I hear from the barred owls around here:


If those aren't the same as what you heard, check out other of their videos with owl calls.

Here, since I've been watering some new plants around the yard, the frogs are carrying on outside. There are at least three species competing for top volume. If I open the windows, they drown out the TV.

csziggy

(34,120 posts)
3. The barred owls here talk most of the summer
Wed Apr 10, 2013, 12:49 AM
Apr 2013

They haven't started doing it much yet, though it's just now getting warm enough to leave some windows open at night. This house is so much better insulated than our old one, we don't hear as many nature sounds when the windows are closed.

In_The_Wind

(72,300 posts)
4. We had Great Horned Owls at our old house.
Wed Apr 10, 2013, 12:58 AM
Apr 2013


We are surrounded by apple orchards, woods and open fields now. I'm looking forward to opening the windows at night.

csziggy

(34,120 posts)
6. Before the plantation land east of us was developed we had
Wed Apr 10, 2013, 01:15 AM
Apr 2013

Great horned owls. But since that got cut up and houses built all around us, they don't have enough territory here. I'd rather have the owls than the neighbors (some of which have spent every day recently running noisy equipment 8-20 hours a day, seven days a week).

Opening the windows reminds me I need to get new window screens. The tiny bugs are getting through the holes and when I do needlework, they're attracted to the lights.

 

olddots

(10,237 posts)
5. We have stereo
Wed Apr 10, 2013, 01:05 AM
Apr 2013

Some nights it goes on for hours then you don't hear them for a while maybe they have two houses ?

This was a story from England .

A man would hoot back to an owl in a tree behind his house and it went on for months till he found out that his neighbor was hooting back to an owl behind his house , turns out there were no owls just two guys hooting at each other .

lastlib

(22,981 posts)
9. Oh, yeah! Almost every night.
Wed Apr 10, 2013, 09:15 AM
Apr 2013

My brother has a 100-ft.-tall radio tower a couple hundred feet from the house, with a crossbar antenna; it regularly has an owl perched on it. When it hoots, we often get a response from the woods to the west, and from the woods to the north. In early mornings, it's almost like a concert!

Callmecrazy

(3,065 posts)
11. On my last two jobsites...
Wed Apr 10, 2013, 04:12 PM
Apr 2013

We've had burrowing owls that hang out in the rafters of the buildings. I run electrical conduit along these joists and trusses and the owls actually land about ten feet from me and will stay and watch me work. They'll sit there for hours supervising me. It's really neat. On Monday I had my little buddy land on my scissor lift and rode with me while I drove the thing.

Loryn

(941 posts)
13. When I first moved here 4 years ago, I heard one all the time.
Wed Apr 10, 2013, 06:59 PM
Apr 2013

I think he/she has moved on. All I hear now are frogs.

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