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Ow.................(l)

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Ow.................(l)

Postby AJB Temple » 16 Jan 2021, 00:02

A tawny owl has taken up residence in a tree in our garden. He's been here a while now and every bl**dy night around 10.30 he starts up with the calling at the top of his owly voice. He can keep this up most of the night.

I wish he would hurry up and find a hot owl babe so I can get some sleep.
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Re: Ow.................(l)

Postby Blackswanwood » 16 Jan 2021, 00:17

I think it could be bad news as tawny owls tend to stick to a territory once they’ve found it!

We have a couple of Little Owls which I was surprised to find are not nocturnal.
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Re: Ow.................(l)

Postby Trevanion » 16 Jan 2021, 00:19

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Re: Ow.................(l)

Postby Blackswanwood » 16 Jan 2021, 00:21

Shame on you Trevanion :lol: :lol:
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Re: Ow.................(l)

Postby Nelsun » 16 Jan 2021, 00:29

Yeah, and?
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Re: Ow.................(l)

Postby Cabinetman » 16 Jan 2021, 02:13

Maybe not go quite as far as Trevanian is suggesting, but if it was my sleep that was being disturbed I might be tempted, I’m suggesting fight fire with fire, he is making a lot of noise, so should you, just keep making him fly away with a loud bang or similar he will eventually get the drift and find somebody else to annoy. Ian
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Re: Ow.................(l)

Postby sunnybob » 16 Jan 2021, 08:02

I know exactly how you feel. :D :D
When we came here there was a 30 ft high water windmill about 30 ft away from our bedroom patio doors. The owl landed there every evening on its way to hunt in the fields around us, and again just before first light when it rested before going back home.
It often flew over our garden fence at less than 10 ft above the ground.
After about 3 years the landowner sold the whole windmill and after that the problem went away.
So your easy answer is a chain saw. :lol: :lol:
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Re: Ow.................(l)

Postby clogs » 16 Jan 2021, 08:37

please visit the link after reading...

not long after moving in we heard this car/house alarm beeping.....drove us nuts..... went outside thinking I'll walk about untill I find the noise then give the owner both barrels....
the the next night got what I thought was an echo....grrrr.....
anyway this went on for weeks......more grrrr....
Finally found out it was a Scops owl.....we live on it's most western limit.....
Now I know what it is I sleep soundly....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkGP2OP7wvc
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Re: Ow.................(l)

Postby Andyp » 16 Jan 2021, 08:53

we found that learning out of the bedroom window to take a better photo scared it off . We tend to hear them around 5-6 am around here.
I do not think therefore I do not am.

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Re: Ow.................(l)

Postby AJB Temple » 16 Jan 2021, 11:30

Actually I am pleased that owls are nesting here. The tree it inhabits is about 100m from the back of the house, but I expect the call carries for a mile or so on a still night. I think the presence of the owl is a good sign as it shows there is good natural diversity and food supply.

We are feeding the birds year round. I know there are a lot of voles and other rodents of similar size. I've been trying to attract a barn owl pair to nest for ages, but Tawny's are just as good. We have an owl box I made but they found a natural tree hollow that I didn't know was there.

Snow is forecast this weekend so that will make things tougher for all of the birds.

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Re: Ow.................(l)

Postby flying haggis » 16 Jan 2021, 17:29

[quote="AJB Temple"

I wish he would hurry up and find a hot owl babe so I can get some sleep.[/quote]

perhaps he hasnt got " the wit to woo"
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Re: Ow.................(l)

Postby flying haggis » 16 Jan 2021, 17:33

and talking of owls, did you know

There are six native species of owl in the UK: barn, tawny, little, short-eared, long-eared and teat.
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Re: Ow.................(l)

Postby AJB Temple » 16 Jan 2021, 18:35

I have a teat owl nest under my sink. ;)
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Re: Ow.................(l)

Postby novocaine » 16 Jan 2021, 18:38

We inported a few Egyptian batht for a friend. He has them in his upstairs loo along with the handt varity.
Carbon fibre is just corduroy for cars.
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Re: Ow.................(l)

Postby TrimTheKing » 17 Jan 2021, 11:35

Near our house is a big beech tree and every summer it gets a family of beecht owls living there.
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Re: Ow.................(l)

Postby Nico Adie » 18 Jan 2021, 11:38

At least it's not a Barn Owl! We're surrounded by woodland and I really enjoy the Tawny's call, whereas Barn Owls sound like a cat being booted. And the ones here really seem to like the sound of their own voice.
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Re: Ow.................(l)

Postby NickM » 19 Jan 2021, 10:33

I think you're lucky to have them.

We've put up a few boxes in our garden with cameras in them. Last year we had two tawny owl chicks but sadly neither of them survived. There doesn't seem to be any sign of any this year so we're worried that they've moved on.

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Re: Ow.................(l)

Postby Mike G » 19 Jan 2021, 11:47

AJB Temple wrote:I have a teat owl nest under my sink. ;)


No, no, no...... Go and sit in the corner with you hands on your head, facing the wall. Contemplate your life choices.

-

I was once standing in a wood alone, leaning on a tree, badger watching. It was dusk. A tawny owl landed on a branch directly above my head not 4 feet away, and sat calling for a minute or two, before it flew off silently. Absolutely wonderful experience.
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Re: Ow.................(l)

Postby AJB Temple » 19 Jan 2021, 14:52

I agree. My moaning was tongue in cheek when I started this thread.

The tawny owl is in fact a pair we have realised. The male, who makes most of the noise, has three regular perches in the garden. We have a dead cherry tree in a tiny woodland part and this overhangs the leaf mould pen (which is about 7m by 2m as we have a lot of leaves each winter) and this appears to be a food supply spot. We know we have a lot of voles and other small rodents in this small area of surrounding land, and within the heap I expect, as I always let the grass grow long during summer, apart from a couple of paths through (one of which goes to my workshop) but when I mow it all down at the end of the year, it is not uncommon to see dozens and dozens of voles and mice dashing for cover. I built some tall mud banks a few years ago when we first moved here and I dug out the ponds. These are now planted with hostas, ferns and such like, plus a hornbeam hedge along the top, and there are lots of little burrows which I presume is where the animals live.

My wife wants to try to rig up a camera. Will have to look into it. There is no light as it is pitch black here at night under the trees.
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Re: Ow.................(l)

Postby NickM » 19 Jan 2021, 15:46

AJB Temple wrote:I agree. My moaning was tongue in cheek when I started this thread.

when I mow it all down at the end of the year, it is not uncommon to see dozens and dozens of voles and mice dashing for cover.
My wife wants to try to rig up a camera. Will have to look into it. There is no light as it is pitch black here at night under the trees.


I see the same exodus of small mammals when I mow the "wild" part of the garden at the end of the Summer.

We weren't completely sure why "our" chicks died. One of them dominated and got all the food which explains why the little one didn't make it. The big one got really quite big but the parents stopped feeding it. They may have been killed or there might have been a shortage of food - it was around the time of the really hot dry spell we had in early Summer last year. Before it died, the parents brought in a couple of rats which is not normal food for them which would suggest other food was scarce. Eating a poisoned rat might have been another possibility.

The box cameras work well in the dark on infrared. My wife also got a wildlife camera for Christmas which you can put anywhere in the garden. It's movement activated and also works well in the dark. That one has an SD card which needs to be collected to see if anything has been filmed. The box cameras work by WiFi (they're just in range of the house) so you can just look at your phone to see what's going on.
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Re: Ow.................(l)

Postby AJB Temple » 19 Jan 2021, 16:24

Poisoning rats is VERY frowned up round here and I suspect was the cause for you Nick. There are lot of coarse fishing ponds in the area, including one of a couple of acres adjacent to us, and rat poison getting into fishing water is not good apparently.

We feed the birds year round here, as I think they need it when they are rearing chicks. During the winter we will put fat and meat offcuts out, especially when it is frozen. We have never knowingly had owls nesting in the garden before and I don't know if they will take food from the feeding areas we use.

I've tried to take pictures of the owls, but even with good glass, there is not enough light when the owls get active at close to dusk, as I am worried getting close will scare them away. We don't have IR wildlife cameras.
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