Also, I just have to say if you're on Facebook, be friends with the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail. Even if you don't live here, it's pure eye candy. Today, the person who runs it is super excited because they saw something called a "Groove-Billed Ani". I'm trying to be excited with them, but I like the pictures of the Roseate Spoonbills better. https://www.facebook.com/flori...

Neat facebook site. I loved the migrating birds flying in the air! I saw my first flock flying in a V yesterday. Students in my class pointed them out as they were flying across from the school. They were too far away to figure out what birds they might have been, but I got a rush to see them knowing that pretty soon I will be seeing more birds and different birds! I love Fall and Winter in Florida.

Wonderful photos Melanie!
Try this to ID what owl you are hearing. Since you can't see it; you can listen & ID it by the call. I'm going to guess you're more likely to be hearing either a Barred owl or a Great Horned owl.Their calls are very different from one another so it should be easy to figure out. Just click on the little speaker icon to hear their calls.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/s...

That's a really neat link, Ann. If I heard that Barred owl in my tree, I'd have thought it was a monkey or something.

I have only seen my owls here by sneaking out at night when I hear them, with a flashlight. But I don't turn on the flashlight until I've more or less located them by sound. Then aim the flashlight in the general direction and turn it on - you will see the eyes at least, and if they're close enough, the whole bird too.

We have screech owls quite often, as well as Great Horned owls.

Screech owls sound VERY strange.

You're right Elaine, the barred owls crack me up with their baboon sounds.

Oh my goodness, that Barred Owl sounds like it's having a seizure! I'm definitely hearing the Great Horned Owl. Sounds exactly like that. It's throwing me though, because I'm hearing it during the day. One day it was really going on. Even this morning I yelled, "Go to bed, owl!"

mellielong said:Oh my goodness, that Barred Owl sounds like it's having a seizure! I'm definitely hearing the Great Horned Owl. Sounds exactly like that. It's throwing me though, because I'm hearing it during the day. One day it was really going on. Even this morning I yelled, "Go to bed, owl!"

You know how you're always telling us something to the effect of the experts aren't always right? Believe me, the Great Horned are out & about during the day -- I have seen this with my own eyes many times & that doesn't count the times I've heard & not seen. It could very well be that it's trying to attract a mate as they breed in the winter. I quote:
"Great Horned owls start nesting in January, raising their families in the dead of winter. The female will incubate the eggs while her mate brings her food. Within a month, up to five eggs will hatch and the owlets will be closely guarded by their parents. Six weeks after hatching, the owlets will leave the nest and walk around. In another three weeks, the young owls will already have learned to fly. The parents will continue to feed and care for their offspring for several months, often as late as October."
From:
http://www.nature.org/ouriniti...

Ann, that was a great link, I had to listen to a whole page of owl calls, really cool!

You're welcome Margaret!

I was surprised how different they were! I was really able to tell that what I was hearing was the Great Horned Owl. Now, to see it! That would be awesome. Dad saw a Snowy Owl in St. Pete last year and he was telling me about it when I mentioned hearing the owl.

Owls are so difficult to see unless they're sitting in the open but I hope you can find it. They are so perfectly camouflaged. Heaven knows they're big enough! Just remember their sound has a way of seeming like it's coming form 1 direction when it's really coming form somewhere else completely.

Lucky Dad! I have never seen a snowy owl. That would be a grand thing to see!

I enjoyed listening to those bird sounds, too.

One of the banders who comes will sometimes play a bird song on her cellphone to get a response back from any birds that they get a glimpse of to verify when the real bird calls back.

Once there was a bird (I don't remember what species now) that would follow her on the ground after she played a bird song. He flew right in and landed near her feet. We thought it might be a male defending his territory against what he thought was another male. He was trying to chase her off. It was funny!

I enjoyed listening to those bird sounds, too.

One of the banders who comes will sometimes play a bird song on her cellphone to get a response back from any birds that they get a glimpse of to verify when the real bird calls back.

Once there was a bird (I don't remember what species now) that would follow her on the ground after she played a bird song. He flew right in and landed near her feet. We thought it might be a male defending his territory against what he thought was another male. He was trying to chase her off. It was funny!

I don't recommend harassing birds by doing that and neither does the bander.

Mockingbirds can be aggressive like that, even if you don't mimic their calls. If they've built a nest near a place where people walk, they will dive-bomb the people to try to keep them away from the nest.

I can't remember what species it was either, but at MOSI we had a nest in our Wild Lime tree. Since that's a host plant for the Giant Swallowtail, the boss was sure to tell me to be careful if I was walking around it. Apparently, the birds hadn't taken to kindly to people getting too close.

Saw 2 Red-shouldered Hawks this morning coming home from Greencastle. Saw a Barred Owl fly over while walking Gus this morning! While we do not see them often we did glimpses of them from time to time. Owls are very hard to spot but keep looking Melanie. Ours hoot often during the day.

We saw a Great Horned owl a few weeks ago. It was in a very bad spot on a road. It was alive but we think it was probably injured. It appeared to be a young owl.

We had male hummer visiting yesterday. So I keep the feeders out. Need to clean them today.

Interesting info about the owls.

We have a pair of hoot owls living nearby... or Barred owls. They often just make "Who-who-who-who" sounds. At night when they are calling to each other they make those other strange sounds, I guess communicated with each other. I remember reading that a pair will remain mates their entire lives.

Just got dark, and I am listening for the owls again tonight. But in the meantime, I did get some nice pics of the female cardinal today:

Beautiful shots of the cardinal, her personallity is coming through!

She's a redhead like me, what can I say?