Didn't want to high Jack the post about odd screaming. After my experience with odd screaming here week or so ago. Thought at first cat then maybe fox? Nieghbor and I shined lights up in tree there sit two owls. Is a longer story but .. Found out that right near me is nest barn owls. Ok big deal Well guess it is. Turns out Barn Owls are rare in WI and whole Midwest area. Owl people been here now poking around several times and all excited. Guess it first document nest young owls in WI since 1999. Who knew. I have photos to prove it but can only share for a price. LOL.
They been there all summer we just didn't know until one little one fell out about month ago. Neighbor thought was sick or hurt. Animal control came got it. Came back said was not sick or injured just out of nest to early. They had it about two three weeks. They got owl people here and they put the little one back in nest. Was funny to watch. There are 4 little ones and they come out move around now at night. But still stay together in nest during day.
I got video the 4 young the owl people shot with camera put on pole stuck up in tree. But was shared with me on the terrible awful FB messenger. I got no idea how to post it from there to here.
We had a pair that would nest in the attic of a house at our farm every year. I like looking at them, but I hate the screeching they make and the pellets and crap they leave behind.
Seems late to me as well for the young ones to be leaving the nest now.
We had owls start screeching late this summer. What is that somebody asked? Screech owls. Turns out they were great horned fledglings. Apparently they screech to beg for food from their mother. It was pretty cool. After about 2 weeks of constant screeching, beginning every night at dusk, it was getting old. I was surprised how long they hung around, the hunting must have been good enough to make it worthwhile... Haven't heard them for a few weeks now and I'm OK with that!
I'm not very fond of owls. They are loud at night. They leave headless rabbits and headless kittens all over. I had an owl decapitate 3 shorthair puppies once. Owls fly into the wire hardware cloth, covering my barn windows, trying to get my birds, frequently breaking some of the wires. They eat rabbits I prefer to eat myself. When I trained beagles, every time I got a good population of rabbits to run my dogs on, owls would decapitate most of them and leave them to rot. When I mow grass, I frequently have to stop and move decapitated rabbits.
Birds of prey should be legal to control, like other predators. Most species are very common. A legal take would not harm their populations and would greatly benefit small game and livestock.
I commonly have barn, screech, great horned and barred owls on my farm and occasionally see great snowy owls during the Fall and early Winter.
Barn Owls used to nest in Michigan, but the same factors that caused them to disappear in Wisconsin did the same here. One or two show up during migration, but I believe the last time they nested here was in the early 80's. When one turns up and hangs around a day or more the crowd of birders gets thick. They are actually one of the widest ranging birds in the world, nesting on six continents.
I have been fortunate to have actually put my hands on a few owls over the years and I treasure the couple encounters with barn owls. I do not believe I've ever met a more ornate bird. Pictures do not do them justice the gold of the feathers is an almost metallic sheen, the beaks are of the clearest ivory. And in spite of an impressive stature they are truly quite diminutive under those feathers.
Your barn owl nest in LaCrosse has really made the news lately. Very cool.
Yep think they waited until little ones fully fledged the nest. Haven't seen or heard them now for couple weeks. The tree they were in is in neighbors back yard maybe couple 100 feet from my back door. I didn't range it just guessing. I did manage to get few pictures. But Im not so good with low light photos. So they don't look like much. Big question now is will the owls nest there again next spring? Or maybe the young come back nest somewhere near by.
Dad had a friend that had a place south of Dallas. He had barn owls in an old hangar so he built them a nesting box. They started using it and he wired web cams in to them (he had plenty of money). He linked the feed to Cornell and you could go online and watch them 24/7. It was impressive how many rats and mice they ate.
Like drasselt I had a screeching bird that I could not identify, heard it in the morning headed to deer stand in the dark. Also turned out to be a juvenile Great Horned owl which I finally skylighted one morning. Things all made sense then about what had picked off all my guineas over the previous few months
they will know who-who next year if they return Barn owls have one of the highest band returns of all the owls maybe Gulo can chime in on this thread, since he has ringed hundreds of owlets
Snowy owls are a real table fan favorite as been pointed out
