Open Thread WE 28 SEP 21 ~ Owls

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great_horned_owl-Bubo_virginianus.jpg

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The wailing owl Screams solitary to the mournful moon.
David Mallet
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“The moon seems unaware
of night's dark hitting
on the damp warm rain
misguiding owl's spitting
A thunder light of love
raising hearts beating
while weather learns more
from rain lovers meeting”
― Munia Khan
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Northern_Spotted_Owl.jpg

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“When the dancing breeze
around the night
guarding the hooting owl’s emotion,
I treasure my longing
in the melted silence
of our spiritual devotion
forever glared (even in the dark)
Only for you"
From the poem- "Only for You”
― Munia Khan, To Evince the Blue
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Western-Screech-Owl.jpg

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Hearing the hooties as of late, 4AM ish. They give a melody to the still darkness, adds to the mystical charm, as an enhancement to sleepless nights. Q

Open thread. So share the wisdom of your inner owl!
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eastern-screech-owl.jpg
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Credits

1. Great Horned Owl
2. Northern Spotted Owl
3. Western Screech Owl
4. Eastern Screech Owl

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harmony.jpeg
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just a few nights ago, sitting on the deck as night was falling. I was not surprised when he answered. I’ve explored ‘talking’ with birds since I was a child, Crows especially. But I was surprised when the owl relocated nearby, not fifty feet away, still just visible in the twilight. I stopped talking at that point, not wanting to reveal my fraud and exact location.

Then I heard a different owl vocalize nearby. The two owls had words, and then there was a bit of a commotion and one (perhaps both) took flight, along with either a bat or disturbed songbird being pursued across an backlit open patch of sky. Then all was quiet. I sat quietly, letting the experience soak in.

A gift.

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

@ovals49

That's a fun story. I learned to whistle with the birds as a child by imitating my grandfather who had perfect pitch and could have a good long conversation with our feathered friends. We have only an occasional lone owl in our woods, but hear them in neighboring trees.

Enjoy!

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enhydra lutris's picture

@ovals49

seek out and pair up with each other. You quite possibly called in an amorous adventurer. Though generally monogamous, the offspring disperse and in the subsequent year must pair up, also, should one of a pair die, the other will seek out a new mate. As a result, October is a great time for owl walks.

here's a pair of nn-releasable rehabs I had the pleasure of knowing for a while:

boris-athena1

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

dystopian's picture

@ovals49 Barred Owl does a good "Who cooks for you, and you all" sometimes with variations or flourish. Mine don't do the 'and you all' ending that most do. Great Horned is a single pitch lower hoo hoo hoo-hoo hoooooo, two slow, a double note, and a long drawn out, sometimes two at the end. All same pitch or very close. Barred is all over the place and so sounds very voice-like. Screech- types sounds more like a toad trill, some versions a horse whinny. Spotted in the west is like Barred in the east but more variable of sounds. They can go nuts and have ya laughing on the ground at their repertoire. You can type names in the search box at www.xeno-canto.org Then click the number on right of a call, and when it comes up click play.

Pro tip: using two cupped hands like we did as kids one can make owl imitations far more effective than most vocalized sounds one can make.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

Dawn's Meta's picture

@ovals49

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A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

Confucius Day is being observed today! traditional life range 551–479 BCE

"In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of."

"Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire."

"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand."

1913 -- The Treaty of Constantinople between Turkey and Bulgaria restores peace; the Turks recover Adrianople and Maritza River line

1941 -- 30,000 Jews are gunned down in Kiev when Heinrich Himmler sends four strike squads to exterminate Soviet Jewish civilians and other "undesirables."

1972 -- Robert McNamara, former US Secretary of Defense, is almost thrown overboard on a ferry by an artist wanting to confront him on his role in escalating US involvement in the Vietnam war (no charges pressed)

2008 -- Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points, its largest single-day point loss, following the bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual

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enhydra lutris's picture

a long time buddy of mine
athena02-0109

likewise this dude
screech 1

another
rocky1

and another pair
dustysavanna

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

enhydra lutris's picture

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

dystopian's picture

Great subject QMS. Everyone needs to hear owls. Different cultures have perceived them in many ways, some as evil spirits, others as wise. They are the best mouse trap there ever was. One Barn Owl brought over 80 mice to its nestfull of young in ONE NIGHT! The facial disk funnels the sound like a parabola to the ear. I think there are some youtube vids of Roger, a famous research Barn Owl. It proved in a black room with speakers of one foot square tiles floating on springs over contacts that they got the mouse every time, where no vision even possible. They emit a mouse squeak from the speaker at G3 and the owl trips the contacts in a second or two. Pitch black. Of course the special recurved edgings to the flight feathers with muffle the wingbeats to silent are key as well. I have been known as an owl whisperer amongst birders. Called a Flammulated into the tree over my hammock in front of others in hammocks and so on... LOL. The Screech-Owls are interesting, and of course do not do anything resembling screeching. But Spotted and Barred might. In Screech-Owls note the Western is gray type only, the Eastern can be gray, or rufous, the red phase in your photo. Some areas more Easterns are red phase, other areas more are gray like Western. Pairs are often mixed phases. Western has a black bill, Eastern has a yellowish-green pale bill. Many folks hear Barn Owls fly over at night, but would never guess that fingernail-on-chalkboard screech is an owl. Great Horned Owl is really the only thing that takes skunks. They can hit fast and hard enough to preclude the squirt, which a vehicle is incapable of. They hunt other owls too, seeing them as competition.

Owl check back later, gotta fly!

Be well all!

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

Dawn's Meta's picture

would be visited by three Great Horned. Two would do the typical Hoo, hoo, hooooo back and forth. But the third always sounded like a kid: interfering, speaking out of turn, and kind of shrieking at the end.

We could spot light them in our tall Firs. And we could call and they would answer back. Such a treat.
ETA:
Here's a Cornell Site:
Great Horned Owl

Love the Owls. Thank you so much.

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A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

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earthling1's picture

should be speaking out about his torture, regularly.
The fact that so few do so is indicative of our plight.
There is NO free speech in the western world.
IMHO

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Dawn's Meta's picture

@earthling1 @earthling1 Our taxes support this shit. I can hardly stand to know, but feel I must pay attention.

If there is some way to get the US out of the torture, secret site and other bad stuff, I will sign up.

We see so much of the global monopolists influence with Macron, and also the military stuff which he follows the US into and a few of his own in Africa.

Two camo helos flew over us and back yesterday. The return was after sundown and the forward helo was lights out. Really weird and dangerous.

ETA: no matter where we have lived in France so far, there is a weekly fly over by two Mirages. Sometimes high and fast; sometimes as slow as possible and just over the treetops/power lines.

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A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

in the canopy around here from time to time. I think the most frequent visitors here are the Great-Horned. It's very good to hear them and is usually just pre-dawn.

Not about owls but migrating birds....this seems pretty cool. https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/2021/9/28/22696202/bird-migration-map-...

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