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These guys were watching eat in the patio last summer!
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Wow, what a thrill!
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In our neighborhood in Raleigh, I mostly hear owls. I’ve seen some, including a beautiful pair of screech owls that lived in a tree next to the lodge where we were staying in Costa Rica. But here the barred owls are just a lovely night-time sound—I rarely see them. Our neighborhood has a large supply of chipmunks and other critters to keep them happy. Sometimes I hear several owls, calling back and forth to each other, and sometimes changing their calls or getting very excited. I wonder what they are saying! The photo below is one of the screech owls I saw in Costa Rica.
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For several years we had a pair of Barred Owls nesting in an old tree cavity near my home. It was wonderful seeing the fluffy owlets each year poke their heads out of the hole. Unfortunately they stopped returning after a territorial fight with some red shoulder hawks.
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Yes. I have seen and heard many Great Horned Owls. They perch high in old Cottonwood trees hooting back and forth between a pair of them. I have seen two pairs in an evening, in different areas along my nightly walks.
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We saw a beautiful snowy owl on Plum Island in Massachusetts recently!
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Ahhh, a few years back I was visiting my mom up in Essex MA and when I arrived I begged her to take a ride up to Plum Island with me to see if we could find a snowy owl! We only had 1 hour before nightfall and we were successful! Such a wonderful sight!
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I have seen Barred Owls in Murrells Inset, SC and Jackson, SC.
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I have seen two Great Horned Owls and one Eastern Screech Owl in the wild. I'm in the lower Hudson Valley of NY. The Screech Owl was sitting on my driveway railing when I pulled in one night and stayed there even when I parked next to it. It only flew away when my door accidentally hit the railing (oops). Since then, I've heard at least one in the backyard every month or so.
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Yes, there are Barred owls that live in my neighborhood in Henrico County, VA. I have been on guided birding trips and have seen Snowy owls in Duluth, Minnesota, a Northern Hawk Owl in NW Wisconsin, Boreal owls in Duluth, a Great Grey north of Duluth, Long Eared and Short Eared Owls in Mission Valley, MT, Northern Pygmy Owls in Montana, Burrowing owls in AZ, Western Screech owl, Whiskered Screech owl and Flammulated owl on Mt Lemon in Tucson, AZ. Elf owl in Coronado Forest, south of Tucson, AZ. Great Horned in Portal, AZ. I would love to see a Barn owl, but someone told me that I need to know someone who either has a barn or knows someone who has a barn where I can be invited in to see the owl.
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We've had burrowing owls (and barred, and great horned, and others) in our Florida neighborhood near the beach. I love these little guys with their long legs, round heads, and spooky call. We used to see them frequently in the evening, lined up in a row like a choir, often right at eye level on a live oak or sea grape branch. They didn't seem to have much fear and seemed to be curious about us, too. Now that more houses have been built, the gopher tortoises and the burrowing owls are rare.
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Barred owl observed while walking my dogs in a local park mid afternoon just outside Portland, Oregon.
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One evening while camping, I was sitting on the picnic table bench waiting for my husband to return from the bathroom so we could start setting up our tent when an owl swooped down next to me and picked up a mouse. It happened so quickly that I wasn't able to identify the species of owl, but it awesome to have this close encounter with nature. I was also surprised (and so was the mouse!) by how quietly this large bird could find and attack it's dinner. I was unaware of either creature until the owl swooped down.
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I have been fortunate over the years to see & photograph 10 species of owls in Canada & the US -- Great Horned, Barred, Boreal, Snowy, Great Gray, Short-eared, Northern Saw-Whet, Northern Hawk, Long-eared and Burrowing plus 3 in Africa - Verreaux's Eagle-Owl, a Pearl-spotted Owlet and an African Wood Owl. My favourite in North American is the Great Gray Owl, which to me has almost a regal bearing with a very intense stare when it focuses on you - I love the facial disk and the eyes. I also like the Snowy which is always a treat to see standing in a snow covered field or on the move searching for dinner. In Florida, I had my first experience seeing Burrowing owls, which actually popped out of their burrows within a sand bunker on a golf course! Fortunately everyone seemed to know they were there and gave that bunker a wide berth. I really enjoy seeing and photographing owls and love when we have any kind of irruption year ... even a mini-one! Thanks for offering this great course.
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Wow what a picture
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I have seen all four of the native species of owl that are found in the Southern U.S...Great Horned, Barred, Barn and Eastern Screech. As a photographer, I've captured several great images of each. The only owl that I still need to get a better photo of is the Barn Owl, but they are tricky to locate. I have also seen, (and gotten a silhouette photo), of a Short Eared Owl that visited our area this time last year. The highlight of my spring of 2021 was seeing two Great Horned owlets in their nest. I also captured a fledged Barred owlet, and a non-fledged Eastern Screech in the red morph plumage. I love to photograph all birds, but owls are hands down my favorite.
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In my dense urban/suburban patch (Chestnut Hill, MA) we had 6 Eastern Screech owls in 2020 and at least 4 Great Horned Owls in 2021. Hoping for a Snowy in 2022, but I suspect I'll have to travel further!
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I have seen snowy owls on the tundra near Churchill, Manitoba, Canada while on a polar bear "tour". I was fortunate to see a Great Grey Owl near a parking lot at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada, unusual to be on the coast more likely to be seen in the interior of the province. Most recently, a Barred Owl in Francis Pennisula Park, Pender Harbour, BC, Canada - chasing a Stellar's Jay, with another Stellar's Jay trying to prevent the attack.
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We also have great horned owls in our area. I live in the mountains of Colorado and we usually have a nesting pair near us.
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I have seen a handful of Great Horned Owls and barn owls. Growing up in rural Missouri it wasn’t uncommon to have one of these large birds spook you at on walks at night.
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I live right near a large nature preserve in Alberta, Canada and I often see owls around my home. Great- horned owls seem to be by far the most common ( there are several breeding pairs that nest within walking distance of my house each spring and I love watching the little ones!). I have also seen Great Grey Owls, Northern Saw-whet Owls, Long-eared Owls, Boreal Owls, Barred Owls and Snowy Owls in my area as well. The Barred Owls also nest nearby. I was also fortunate enough to observe some Burrowing Owls out on the grasslands while on a road trip. That was a huge highlight for me - they are so cute and enigmatic.
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I live on the edge of the Whitemud Creek nature preserve in Edmonton. Is this the same place? I have been following a breeding pair of great horned owls for a couple of years. Mid to late February, near their nesting area, I begin to hear the pair hooting to each other. One afternoon in early March 2021 I photographed the pair perched in separate trees about 50 feet apart, marking two vertices of an equilateral triangle, the previous year’s nest within view at the third vertex. Over the next few weeks their conversation seemed to move south. As it turned out, they chose not to occupy the previous year’s nest and moved to another about 100 metres to the south. They bred two chicks each year2020 and 2021 but I believe only one of the 2021 brood survived. I am asked sometimes how I got so close to the nest to get this photograph of the chicks (hatched in 2020). I didn’t – I was on the ground some considerable distance away, using a Nikon B700 superzoom camera zoomed out to its maximum focal length. Unfortunately I was without a tripod so the photograph isn’t as sharp as I would have liked.
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I've seen and heard Eastern Screech Owls pretty frequently in the city of Rochester NY. I'm going to build a nest box for them, as I've heard them right in my neighborhood in the middle of the city. Have also seen Snowy Owls up by the shore of Lake Ontario, Short-eared Owls in Buckland Park and Nations Road areas, Saw-whet Owls in Braddock Bay Park, and Great-horned Owls and Barred Owls in various places. I also once saw a Hawk Owl over near Medina, NY. I especially love watching Short-eared Owls flying about silently just before dusk in winter. I hope to see a Barn Owl some day.
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I saw a snowy owl while hiking in the dunes out at Race Point in Provinceton, MA in February of this year. Apparently they travel through there or may nest there that time of year and are so beautiful! The only other experiences I have had with owls were studying/banding barn owls in Nantucket, MA and rehabilitating great horned and screech owls while working at the New England Wildlife Center.
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When I was little some great horned owls visited a big dead tree behind our house from time to time. We could often hear them calling to other nearby owls. On certain special nights my parents woke us up to see them, and up close through some binoculars. We loved it! They were some very special neighbors :)
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I saw a Snowy Owl on Christmas Day in Northwest Indiana in 2017. It flew alongside our car as we were driving to our family dinner. I also saw two young Great Horned Owls in a nest in the Indianapolis, Indiana area in the spring of 2021. These I was able to photograph.
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I live in England and the owl that I have seen most often is the Barn Owl. My house overlooks fields and last summer I had some great views of a barn owl hunting around the field in the twilight for several weeks. A neighbour told me he knew of a nest nearby, so it must have been feeding young. Interestingly it always went along the edge of the fields where there is rough grass, but never in the middle which was arable crops. I assume that all the mice and voles live in the rough grass themselves. I have regularly heard tawny owls calling, but never seen them.
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We hear Great Horned Owls pretty regularly outside our house in late fall/winter. A few years ago we went outside to try and see them and could see them perched on rooftops on houses in my neighborhood. Occasionally, my kids and I would see them fly to the to the next rooftop and would try to follow them. Beautiful!
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I have never seen a owl in real life but I have heard a Great Horned Owl when I woke up at night.
I have seen Barred Owls in Murrells Inset, SC and Jackson, SC. 
Barred owl observed while walking my dogs in a local park mid afternoon just outside Portland, Oregon. 
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