I watched this video last night and this morning found a Great Horned Owl in its nest by paying attention to the two crows who circled a specific tree while alarm-calling for 2-3 minutes. It took me close to an hour to find the right angle at the exact moment the owl poked its head up, and I never would've kept watching for so long if I hadn't seen this video. Thank you!
Awesome, you got it! It's amazing how difficult they can be to see even when all the alarms are telling you exactly where to look. Thank you so much for reporting back!
There is a family of Barred Owls that lives in the woods behind my college campus, I hear their calls all the time at night. I’ve always wanted to spot one but have never been able to. I will try this. Thanks!
Your channel just popped up on my TH-cam feed. I'm really glad it did. That was very interesting cheers. I'll follow your tips to try to find the owls that I can hear hooting from my home at night. Someone he's really close but other times he's further away. Mostly there's just one owl hooting at a time but I just love it when two owls find each other and hoot back and forth to each other! Cheers again for your interesting video. I'll subscribe.
I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I'm excited for you to try and find them. I'd love to hear the story if you're successful at finding them or need extra pointers. Thanks for watching!
Thank you Brian! I so enjoy spotting and observing owls. This will help me see so many more. Your videos are always very useful, thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Thanks Brian. I see the same behavior with the birds and hawks such as Red-shouldered and Red-tailed ones. But not with accipiters like the Sharp-Shinned Hawk. With them the birds freeze where they are without movement and become exceptionally quiet to avoid becoming dinner for these small bird hunters. Cheers. Michael
Thanks Brian..loved this video. I have a male a female great horned owls for several years now..but haven't seen them since he first met , they visit me. Morning and evening every day.they call to me bur hide..
Great tips, thank you. Here in North Carolina I have an area with a red morph Eastern Screech Owl. It’s easier for me to go before sunrise so I’ve been twice so far in the mornings. Ironically i tried a call and it comes around for about 5 minutes and then leaves. It doesn’t seem to hang around all morning like some other owls do. Is that common in mornings for some owls to be going to sleep soon and not stick around long? I try not to call too much but it’s interesting that it didn’t stick around long at all. Literally 7:00am-7:10am is the only time I have before it’s gone!
Yes, a lot of owls will be going to roost around that time. Are there any patterns to the direction it goes? Sometimes if they're roosting in the same place every day you can follow them over a few mornings and figure out where they sleep. Also - if it's getting called in to investigate the sound, that could also be why it leaves quickly. It sees you, realizes it got tricked and quickly moves on to whatever it was doing before you called it in. Screech owls are smaller so in my experience the alarms involve fewer birds. I have heard smaller thrushes and sparrows alarming at them, but usually no more than 2 at a time.
@@NatureMentor thanks. I did see it fly into the forest so it must have a roosting tree in there somewhere. I have another spot I will try where screech owl has been seen. Thanks for the tips.
Hey wanted to let you know I went to another area where one was seen prior by someone I know. This is a cool story. So this morning I went looking and I remembered a guy told me he saw one near a disc golf thing (not sure what you call the pole with the chain around it) and I first noticed the owl in it’s roost hole!! Then I looked down on the ground and there was the disc golf thing! So I wonder if it also nests there!! I got a few shots in the hole I was happy with. On a side note, the other owl I was talking about on my first comment is a red morph, and this one is gray. Reds make up 1/3 so they are more rare! But I’m glad I got some good shots I’m happy with!!
Thanks Brian! I was thinking of asking you how often you hear bird alarms, but i think that question might have too many factors to answer, so i came up with another slightly more specific question🙂... Do you hear more bird alarms during nesting season?
Great questions! I hear alarms pretty much every time I go out. In winter it's often just a few crows yelling at a raven or something. Definitely hear more during nesting season. It's not uncommon to hear multiple different alarms happening during the nesting season. And if you're wondering specifically about alarms for owls, they tend to be most common during spring & summer, but I have heard them at all times of year. Thanks for asking!
It can take a bit of practice to separate out the alarms for owls from all the other background chirps and sounds of the forest. Do you know what birds you're hearing? I would recommend starting with robins and crows if you want the quickest results for finding owls.
I hope so too. In this case you may benefit from doing some local research on the distributions and ecologies of owls in your country. There may be certain parks or forests where certain types of owls are much more abundant even if they are overall endangered.
It’s definitely a good idea to have a plan for what you would do if you encounter these animals. There’s lots of great info published by local natural resources departments that can help build your confidence to explore. It’s important to note that the actual risk of attacks from cougars and black bears is quite low compared to other common activities like driving in a car. Domestic dog attacks are also much more common. You can also simply go during the daytime. Birds will still alarm at owls during the day, but the activity tends to be a bit more subdued so it may take a bit longer for you to spot them. And remember that going during the day does not preclude encountering mountain lions and bears. If you have grizzly bears I would highly recommend having a solid plan for dealing with an encounter regardless of what time of day you go out there. I hope that helps!
@@NatureMentor thanks! I have been educating myself on what to do in the “what if” situations. In Wisconsin we do have gray wolves, black bears, and mountain lions. Not many in this lower half of the state tho. I did get pepper spray to protect from dogs bcs people around here love to let their dogs run loose and they scare me and like to growl or jump up on me which I don’t care if they’re “friendly” or not, I don’t appreciate that! I learned that at least 1000 people in the US each day have urgent care or emergency visits due to dog bites…
Interesting! I live in a forest, 100 acres, rural southern Ontario, 100% off grid, been here for 15 years, and only once seen an owl, this one was in the middle of winter, a Snowy Owl, just about 20 feet away from my cabin, front door! Didn't last long, maybe 15 seconds, and POOF, gone! Plenty of horn owls, never see them but do hear them...As far as birds getting noisy and alarming, ya, when there's a red tail hawk, mater of fact yesterday, Dec. 18-2022 three large crows were going after a hawk! Brave! LOL!
Omg I loved your video myself I never in my life time thought I would be so obsessed with the owls where I live there is thousands off great gray owls and many other kinds I have been so crazy after hearing about how big the owls here were in jackpot Nevada I've never seen so many interesting owl I've seen the turn a tree and come out the bottom in like a cooon omg so if any body's wants to drive to jackpot Nevada I'll will show you where every owls is I've went carzy carzy everybody's thinks I'm seeing things but believe I've been following this owls since I found out they where here cause I'm new to jackpot and believe me the owl have been a god sent cause I really think there fascinating and never new they got so huge Ice been doing this for about 3 weeks straight I could sit for hours and hours so I'm not lie come to jackpot Nevada to see for yourself I thinks it's so cool
I watched this video last night and this morning found a Great Horned Owl in its nest by paying attention to the two crows who circled a specific tree while alarm-calling for 2-3 minutes. It took me close to an hour to find the right angle at the exact moment the owl poked its head up, and I never would've kept watching for so long if I hadn't seen this video. Thank you!
Awesome, you got it! It's amazing how difficult they can be to see even when all the alarms are telling you exactly where to look. Thank you so much for reporting back!
Thank you so much. I just saw my first owl in nature thanks to your wonderful advice. I was in awe!!
That's fantastic! Thanks for sharing :)
There is a family of Barred Owls that lives in the woods behind my college campus, I hear their calls all the time at night. I’ve always wanted to spot one but have never been able to. I will try this. Thanks!
Nice, definitely give it a go! Let me know if you get stuck and I can offer more pointers.
Cardinals are always the alarm I hear before seeing Barred Owls. In Southern Ontario.
Very cool! Cardinals are a fantastic alarm bird 🙂
This is SO COOL Chris! You are so interesting. Do you lecture? Love your videos and simple explanations. Carolyn
Your channel just popped up on my TH-cam feed. I'm really glad it did. That was very interesting cheers. I'll follow your tips to try to find the owls that I can hear hooting from my home at night. Someone he's really close but other times he's further away. Mostly there's just one owl hooting at a time but I just love it when two owls find each other and hoot back and forth to each other! Cheers again for your interesting video. I'll subscribe.
I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I'm excited for you to try and find them. I'd love to hear the story if you're successful at finding them or need extra pointers. Thanks for watching!
Thank you Brian! I so enjoy spotting and observing owls. This will help me see so many more. Your videos are always very useful, thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Thanks for watching Carol! Owl spotting is always so much fun :)
I used this method last week and it led me to a bald eagle! Works on multiple species of predatory birds!
Yes! That's so true! Different types of habitats may lead you to very different predators. Awesome story!
Thanks Brian. I see the same behavior with the birds and hawks such as Red-shouldered and Red-tailed ones. But not with accipiters like the Sharp-Shinned Hawk. With them the birds freeze where they are without movement and become exceptionally quiet to avoid becoming dinner for these small bird hunters. Cheers. Michael
Great observations!
Thanks Brian! thank you so much to telling us your information is very helped full
I am Also a Big owl's Lover!
Love from Pakistan
Thanks Brian..loved this video. I have a male a female great horned owls for several years now..but haven't seen them since he first met , they visit me. Morning and evening every day.they call to me bur hide..
Thanks Brian! This is great, on my nature observation journey I’ve yet to see a 🦉 Wonderful to now have some tools to track 🦉
Oh yeah, definitely go for it! I've had multiple people report back that this method was the key to seeing their first owl :)
Thank you for this video, it's so helpful, can't wait to find whete my owls are..blessed be!
Keep me posted on your progress!
@@NatureMentor
I will thank you!
Great tips, thank you. Here in North Carolina I have an area with a red morph Eastern Screech Owl. It’s easier for me to go before sunrise so I’ve been twice so far in the mornings. Ironically i tried a call and it comes around for about 5 minutes and then leaves. It doesn’t seem to hang around all morning like some other owls do. Is that common in mornings for some owls to be going to sleep soon and not stick around long? I try not to call too much but it’s interesting that it didn’t stick around long at all. Literally 7:00am-7:10am is the only time I have before it’s gone!
Yes, a lot of owls will be going to roost around that time. Are there any patterns to the direction it goes? Sometimes if they're roosting in the same place every day you can follow them over a few mornings and figure out where they sleep.
Also - if it's getting called in to investigate the sound, that could also be why it leaves quickly. It sees you, realizes it got tricked and quickly moves on to whatever it was doing before you called it in.
Screech owls are smaller so in my experience the alarms involve fewer birds. I have heard smaller thrushes and sparrows alarming at them, but usually no more than 2 at a time.
@@NatureMentor thanks. I did see it fly into the forest so it must have a roosting tree in there somewhere.
I have another spot I will try where screech owl has been seen. Thanks for the tips.
Hey wanted to let you know I went to another area where one was seen prior by someone I know. This is a cool story. So this morning I went looking and I remembered a guy told me he saw one near a disc golf thing (not sure what you call the pole with the chain around it) and I first noticed the owl in it’s roost hole!! Then I looked down on the ground and there was the disc golf thing! So I wonder if it also nests there!! I got a few shots in the hole I was happy with.
On a side note, the other owl I was talking about on my first comment is a red morph, and this one is gray. Reds make up 1/3 so they are more rare! But I’m glad I got some good shots I’m happy with!!
@@gary_michael_flanagan_wildlife Awesome, thanks for following up and sharing the story!
Thanks Brian!
I was thinking of asking you how often you hear bird alarms, but i think that question might have too many factors to answer, so i came up with another slightly more specific question🙂... Do you hear more bird alarms during nesting season?
Great questions! I hear alarms pretty much every time I go out. In winter it's often just a few crows yelling at a raven or something. Definitely hear more during nesting season. It's not uncommon to hear multiple different alarms happening during the nesting season.
And if you're wondering specifically about alarms for owls, they tend to be most common during spring & summer, but I have heard them at all times of year. Thanks for asking!
Thank you, very helpful!!
This was a very useful video!! Thank you! I
That’s one way I spot falcons, hawks, and eagles so that makes sense! Animals are always the best at seeing other animals
When you say alarm does it mean the other birds are prey and scared of owls?
Essentially yes, however alarm calls for owls tend to be more about predator deterrence rather than fear.
@@NatureMentor cool thank you
Thank you 👍
I see them while mushroom hunting in state forest. They like the road for long clear attack path
Beign around the UK sicne I kid I've always heard owls calling from tree's, see holes thinkign "oh there's the Owl!", but never ever seen one D:
I just subscribed to your channel..
I hear bird & chipmunk & squirrel alarms every time I go out.. I think they are chirping at me tho not an owl
It can take a bit of practice to separate out the alarms for owls from all the other background chirps and sounds of the forest. Do you know what birds you're hearing? I would recommend starting with robins and crows if you want the quickest results for finding owls.
@@NatureMentor ok thanks so much for the recommendation!
I'm sad that Owls are an endangered species in Switzrland, they're soo rare to find. Maybe I'll have some luck one day.
I hope so too. In this case you may benefit from doing some local research on the distributions and ecologies of owls in your country. There may be certain parks or forests where certain types of owls are much more abundant even if they are overall endangered.
i like owls
I’d be concerned about running into a bear or mountain lion as I trek around at dawn & dusk 😳😬
It’s definitely a good idea to have a plan for what you would do if you encounter these animals. There’s lots of great info published by local natural resources departments that can help build your confidence to explore.
It’s important to note that the actual risk of attacks from cougars and black bears is quite low compared to other common activities like driving in a car. Domestic dog attacks are also much more common.
You can also simply go during the daytime. Birds will still alarm at owls during the day, but the activity tends to be a bit more subdued so it may take a bit longer for you to spot them.
And remember that going during the day does not preclude encountering mountain lions and bears. If you have grizzly bears I would highly recommend having a solid plan for dealing with an encounter regardless of what time of day you go out there.
I hope that helps!
@@NatureMentor thanks! I have been educating myself on what to do in the “what if” situations. In Wisconsin we do have gray wolves, black bears, and mountain lions. Not many in this lower half of the state tho.
I did get pepper spray to protect from dogs bcs people around here love to let their dogs run loose and they scare me and like to growl or jump up on me which I don’t care if they’re “friendly” or not, I don’t appreciate that!
I learned that at least 1000 people in the US each day have urgent care or emergency visits due to dog bites…
Interesting! I live in a forest, 100 acres, rural southern Ontario, 100% off grid, been here for 15 years, and only once seen an owl, this one was in the middle of winter, a Snowy Owl, just about 20 feet away from my cabin, front door! Didn't last long, maybe 15 seconds, and POOF, gone! Plenty of horn owls, never see them but do hear them...As far as birds getting noisy and alarming, ya, when there's a red tail hawk, mater of fact yesterday, Dec. 18-2022 three large crows were going after a hawk! Brave! LOL!
Thanks for sharing, sounds like a great spot for owls!
Off grid in Southern Ontario? Wow that would be amazing. I’m in Southern Ontario and real estate is a joke
Omg I loved your video myself I never in my life time thought I would be so obsessed with the owls where I live there is thousands off great gray owls and many other kinds I have been so crazy after hearing about how big the owls here were in jackpot Nevada I've never seen so many interesting owl I've seen the turn a tree and come out the bottom in like a cooon omg so if any body's wants to drive to jackpot Nevada I'll will show you where every owls is I've went carzy carzy everybody's thinks I'm seeing things but believe I've been following this owls since I found out they where here cause I'm new to jackpot and believe me the owl have been a god sent cause I really think there fascinating and never new they got so huge Ice been doing this for about 3 weeks straight I could sit for hours and hours so I'm not lie come to jackpot Nevada to see for yourself I thinks it's so cool
Thank you!