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Owl Calls

A couple weeks ago I was practicing my owl calls on a night hike and I successfully called in a barred owl. My owl call is pretty good, but I've never called an owl to me from afar because I rarely do night hikes and so I don't get much chance to. I had expected to be really excited about this, especially since two of my coworkers are really skilled at owl calls and they don't usually get a response, much less a full conversation, but instead I felt so guilty. I eventually had to start ignoring this poor deceived owl that was following my call through the park. I felt like I catfished him.

I was gonna say "who among us would follow an inhuman voice in the forest yelling HEY, HEY YOU WHAT'S UP?" but then I remembered this website has me pigeonholed as Most Likely To Be Taken By The Fae. So. Yeah fair enough to this owl, I would probably do the same.

3 comments

  • I liked the rest of that blog post also:

    I never know whether or not discussing fun comments ruins the fun or not, but if it does, uh, stop reading now. šŸ˜‡

    I'm glad Juliette commented about a thing I was going to say. It can be fun to call in an owl, or any animal for that matter, but keep in mind they are wild animals with important responsibilities.

    Most owls are solitary, and if they aren't raising babies, they don't even always hang around their mate. They have to do everything on their own. You calling them is taking them away from that.

    They can ID other owls by their calls, and they know who they've allowed to be on "their property." Owls can be a threat to other owls, so if they hear a reasonable facsimile of a stranger, that's you when you think you hear someone in your house at night.

    Birds don't cope with stress well, flying is very metabolically demanding, and you're either taking them away from a potential meal, disturbing their rest, or also potentially calling a predator to the same spot or scaring away their next meal.

    While owls always tend to look a bit grumpy, except Snowies, Juliette may be pretty close to getting that Tawny's frustration. It's freaked out, and potentially going hungry that night - not a fun combo for anyone.

    If you're going to do it, just don't do it often/for a long time or in the same area. I used to call in my jays and cardinals in the beginning, but as I learned why they come in, I've learned it's pretty much a social faux pas toward animals I want to be friendly with. Now I just try to leave them small treats and plenty of good hiding spots. They like that better. ā˜ŗļø