Spiderbloggers

These are three of the best pics I've taken of owls. Powerful owl which is found in the forests near my home. Rare, and very beautiful, it eats ring-tailed possums, and has the remains of one in its talons in this pic. The little barred owl roosted above our tent in Kruger Park, and is a tiny owl by comparison, only 15cm against 50 cm for the other two.The Spotted Eagle Owl, also from southern Africa, was a little more wary and this pic with the aid of a spot-light was the bset one I could get. Magnificent birds!!

Oh, wow! These are such great pics! I will dig up some of my owl pictures to post when I get back from the chiropracter. I began writing a book on owls in highschool, but I really messed up the referencing. One day I may dig it out of the drawers and give it a go again. Photographing owls is very challenging under the best circumstances. I have stumbled through the woods at 2 am to watch owlets being fed. It is a wonderful experience. Your owls look very similar to mine. All mysterious and beautiful.

I am most impressed that you have such a good photo of Powerful Owl, Frogman. We have them here, along with the more common Boobook, but haven't managed a photo anything like that. They are notoriously hard to photograph. We hear the call quite often, and are thrilled by it every time.

Nikki - an owl question. As part of my research, I am looking at ancient sites and animal representations. One place I will be visiting is Poverty Point in Louisiana. Northeast of the state on the Mason Bayou near the Mississippi. The main figurine there is of a 'fat owl', considered typical of Poverty Point culture. Do you have any idea what owl they would be representing? How limited is the range of possible species? If so, anything about them which would distinguish the species, that may show up in the images of them from the site? Mind you, this was 3000 years ago, but the species are probably the same. Aren't they?

Oh sure. There are 4 speices of owls indigenous to Louisiana. The Barn Owl (Tyto alba) has a very white heart shaped face. The Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) is a very large owl. It has ear tufts on its head. It looks extremely similar to the third owl in Frogman's pictures. The Barred Owl (Strix varia) is all brown, no tufts, vertical bars on its belly. It is a swamp owl and is the most common owl in the southern states, especially the bayou. Last the Eastern Screech Owl (Otus asio) is a small tufted owl. It looks like a miniature great horned owl. It occurs it two color phases, gray morph and red morph.

Here are some pictures I took a long time ago. They are a bit low quality. I scanned them in from prints that I took with my old minolta when I was 15.

This is a Eastern Screech Owl in the yard.


This one is a barred owl.


This is a baby great horned owlet. It almost bit my dad when he walked by it. We watched these owlets from the time they were nestlings. This was taken one morning after a big windstorm came through the night before. The two owlets were knocked out of their nest. It took forever to locate them because they were so quite. My dad was standing there surveying his surroundings and the owlet was behind his ankle with its mouth gaping open. Ha ha, almost hte funniest thing I've ever saw. My husband running from a diving barred owl that was protecting its nest may have been funnier. What the men in my life have gone through to please me!

Thank you yet again for such useful information, Nikki. Love the photos and stories. The Poverty Point site is on Macon Bayou right in the middle of the bayou country of Louisiana. I will look up the four species. Given we have no oral tradition dating back that far, I can only look at the figurines and see if there is anything which distinguishes which owl it might be. I will also check out the oral tradition of the contemporary traditions, although I gather continuity in tradition can't be established as it can with our Aboriginal cultures - but I really need to learn a lot mroe before I make such statements. This is the sort of thing I want to do for every animal in every culture all over the world. May take a few lifetimes just to get started!