Diana

I had no idea the variety of talons and prey among owls.  This explains why the Great Horned Owls hang out in and around our yard at night, as our area also attracts opossum, cats, raccoons, etc.

I live in Southern California, near the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. We have many owls here; in fact, one visited this morning at 4:30am. I heard it hooting outside my window, and I heard another owl further away. We have seen an owl (presumably the same one) perched in the evening on a schoolyard baseball backstop. It is huge! We can make out its size, shape and ear tufts (a Great Horned Owl, perhaps) because there is a school gym behind him, which is often illuminated at night.  We are familiar with its call, a kind of hoo (pause) hoo-hoo-hoo. They often show up, sometimes landing on the roof and hooting. We have heard other, more unusual calls as well, with one sounding like well hello! We have seen other owls around at night, and once we saw one that was white (or whitish-faced) up in our palm tree.