Yesterday at dusk I saw my first wild owl. What realy surprised me was his size. I see Red Tail hawks all the time and assumed owls where about the same size. This guy was tiny about the size of a robin, very cute with his flat face. I goggled owls in NY state and found he is a Northern Saw Whet owl. Seeing a animal for the first time in the wild was a real treat!
I've never seen any of the small owls in the wild. We do have GHOs around here, but we hear them a lot more often than we see them. They call to each other from all over our neighborhood.
Having gotten up-close and personal with this barred owl I can tell you they are more feathers than body.
I have actually held a great horned owl. A friend of mine use to run what was callee the Species Survival Center. He would travel around to schools with all the animals he had and talk about what was going on with them in the wild and their habitat. Part of the show was explaining the differences between a great horned owl and a McCaw. Sort of a north meets south of birds. Anyway I helped out at his shows once in a while and I would go to the back of the auditorium and release each bird and they would fly to him up on stage. Owls are completely silent but a McCaw sounds like a pheasant when it is flushed. Very cool to do. He also breed his owls and I was fortunate enough to be able to hold and pet the babies too. The adult GHO are intimidating to hold. I always thought this thing could take my face off! The only owl I have ever seen in the wild, if you call it that, was a barn owl. So from that point of view I completely understand what you mean about how small some of them can be. Owls are cool!
I got to feed a great horned owl when I volunteered at a wildlife rehab. Also saw one land on a telephone post out back last Feb. and heard it call back and forth with it's mate.
woodmort - watch that lil bugger around your chickens- it'll think it just flew into KFC. Actually, it is a beatiful bird.
Quote:First I think it would have been a little to small/light to bother a full grown chicken but it was rehabbed and released far from here. It was a juvenile according to the vet.
