No, it isn't what you think...
I was walking the dog along the canal towpath this evening, when I heard a tawny owl call. Now I do a fair impression of the long 'Huuuuu' call of the adult bird, so I duly called, and lo and behold, 2 obviously newly-fledged juveniles started calling and begging for food.
I've had this happen before at this time of year, and the young birds will often come quite close (I've seen them perch less than 20 feet away in well-lit areas), but never before has it been two birds at once, so it was a perfect opportunity to see them. I kept hooting whilst walking away from them, and they followed, moving from tree to tree. At one point the two birds were sat side by side on the same branch. They could see me quite clearly, but because I was making the right noises, they thought I was going to feed them. Despite their reputation, owls are not the brightest of birds.
Apart from the childish delight I get from getting a wild bird to follow me, I find it wonderful to watch how silently they fly. I saw them move repeatedly, quite low, but didn't hear a thing from their wings. They called incessantly though! My view was just the silhouettes, but that is still more than you usually get with tawnys, as they tend to call from the centre of trees.
Doing the owl impression later in the year often gets me into territorial disputes with adult birds. I lose, because they are better at being an owl than I am, but the volume these dim-witted feather dusters can achieve when they are roused is amazing.
Wonderful birds.
I was walking the dog along the canal towpath this evening, when I heard a tawny owl call. Now I do a fair impression of the long 'Huuuuu' call of the adult bird, so I duly called, and lo and behold, 2 obviously newly-fledged juveniles started calling and begging for food.
I've had this happen before at this time of year, and the young birds will often come quite close (I've seen them perch less than 20 feet away in well-lit areas), but never before has it been two birds at once, so it was a perfect opportunity to see them. I kept hooting whilst walking away from them, and they followed, moving from tree to tree. At one point the two birds were sat side by side on the same branch. They could see me quite clearly, but because I was making the right noises, they thought I was going to feed them. Despite their reputation, owls are not the brightest of birds.
Apart from the childish delight I get from getting a wild bird to follow me, I find it wonderful to watch how silently they fly. I saw them move repeatedly, quite low, but didn't hear a thing from their wings. They called incessantly though! My view was just the silhouettes, but that is still more than you usually get with tawnys, as they tend to call from the centre of trees.
Doing the owl impression later in the year often gets me into territorial disputes with adult birds. I lose, because they are better at being an owl than I am, but the volume these dim-witted feather dusters can achieve when they are roused is amazing.
Wonderful birds.
