# Finding the Great Horned Owl



## outdoorsman4 (Dec 5, 2006)

I have become more interested in owls since I began birdwatching two seasons ago. I have only sighted three species in my lifetime. The first owl I ever saw was a snowy owl as it flew across in front of my car early one morning years ago near Rose City. Last year I was lucky enough to spot a barred owl sitting on a limb not far off of a dirt road on my way back to hunting camp in the upper peninsula one morning. Back home in metro Detroit I have spotted great horned owls on three occasions in the daytime but can never seem to get a close enough look at them. Now here's the scenario: I frequently hear great horned owls calling during the night in the woods behind my house. Has anyone ever gone out with a flashlite at night and actually been able to locate one? I keep thinking that it would be useless to try based on the owls keen senses. But then I have read somewhere about people walking right up to a perched owl to get a photo. I feel like I might be missing out on a great opportunity to see one up close, especially so close to home. Any comments?


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## Splitshot (Nov 30, 2000)

Owls don't have a great fear of people but it is still difficult to get close enough to them to get a picture with a flash. I got this one of a young barred owl at night, but he had left the nest and the mother was hooting at me the whole time I was taking picures but not close enough to get a picture with a flash.









I call them in very often and the barred owls are easy to call in the daytime. That is how I got this picture.









I haven't been trying to hard lately to get a picture of a great horned owl, but I have been thinking about it. When I call them, they are intent on finding the interloper and mostly ignore people.

Bird watching is very cool and I get a great deal of enjoyment out of it although I usually do it while I'm fishing or hunting except for owls.


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## M1Garand (Apr 12, 2006)

I've seen quite a few, I think one of the few species I haven't seen is the Snowy Owl. Partly why I enjoy hunting is that's where I've seen some of them. Sitting in the woods for me isn't just about the hunting but observing nature as well and I'll second that bird watching is pretty cool. 

A story of the Great Horned Owl happened to me when I was a kid of maybe 10. My family owned some property that has a large shallow pond partially on it and one year my dad did some muskrat trapping. When we went out to check the traps one day, a Great Horned Owl was caught by the leg in one of the foothold traps. As we got close, it spread it's wings and hissed. Luckily dad has a tarp in the boat and he threw it over and wrestled with it for a bit to subdue it. Before he released it he called me over to show me the talons.


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## Mister ED (Apr 3, 2006)

We get them in the woods next to the house. Usually in a month or so, we will start hearing them. They will usually nest in a couple of the TALL pines that we have. I have not been able to get close enough for a pic of an adult. They are usually high in the tree, and will take off before you get too close .... almost silently. I do have a pic of a small Great Horned (similar situation to Splitshot's Barred Owl pic) only its on film and my scanner has pooped out on us.


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## ESOX (Nov 20, 2000)

Great Horned Owl in residence at Metro, just ask at the nature center, they will tell you where to look. Bring your binoculars.
Another in residence at Stony in the pine trees along the east boundary of the park N of the lake. Walk the property edge till you find the castings piled up on the ground, look up.


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## Splitshot (Nov 30, 2000)

Both barred owls and great horned owls are very common. I have called them in hundreds of times in almost every part of the state.

Mating begins in Janurary and is when they become more vocal.


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## outdoorsman4 (Dec 5, 2006)

Esox, two of my three sightings of the great horned were at the metro beach nature area. If I remember correctly, according to the park, their has been a breeding pair using that metal tub up the tree every year since they installed it. Unfortunately, even with binocs you can usually only see the owls head sticking out. 
Splitshot, those are very nice owl photos. Can you elaborate further on your experiences with calling them in. What time of day? By mouth or recording? How close do owls get if they come in? How successful is calling? Can you shine a flashlite to see them? Ever been attacked?:lol:


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## pporonto (Oct 8, 2003)

outdoorsman4 said:


> I have become more interested in owls since I began birdwatching two seasons ago. I have only sighted three species in my lifetime. The first owl I ever saw was a snowy owl as it flew across in front of my car early one morning years ago near Rose City. Last year I was lucky enough to spot a barred owl sitting on a limb not far off of a dirt road on my way back to hunting camp in the upper peninsula one morning. Back home in metro Detroit I have spotted great horned owls on three occasions in the daytime but can never seem to get a close enough look at them. Now here's the scenario: I frequently hear great horned owls calling during the night in the woods behind my house. Has anyone ever gone out with a flashlite at night and actually been able to locate one? I keep thinking that it would be useless to try based on the owls keen senses. But then I have read somewhere about people walking right up to a perched owl to get a photo. I feel like I might be missing out on a great opportunity to see one up close, especially so close to home. Any comments?


Owls are really cool. I have a friend that can call a screech owl in close to about 5 ft... It is awesome. If you want to see a Great Horned Owl up close, they nest at Metro Beach nature center every year. Visit the center and talk to the naturalist and they will direct you to the nest. they use the same nest every year and you can see it from the trail. they began nesting in late febuary and by May the Owlets are out of the nest and perched near the nest. I have some photo's from years past....


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## pporonto (Oct 8, 2003)

Splitshot said:


> Owls don't have a great fear of people but it is still difficult to get close enough to them to get a picture with a flash. I got this one of a young barred owl at night, but he had left the nest and the mother was hooting at me the whole time I was taking picures but not close enough to get a picture with a flash.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Great Photo's!!! I love Barred owls... I love to hear them call when I am hunting!!


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## M1Garand (Apr 12, 2006)

Mister ED said:


> They are usually high in the tree, and will take off before you get too close .... almost silently.


They are very silent. They evolved a feather type that makes virtually no noise when they are in flight. I was deer hunting once and had a Barred Owl swoop about a foot from my head and I didn't hear a thing. He had landed in the tree above me and was hunting. He'd swoop under some pine limbs, land and search the area and move on. I had been watching a squirrel for about 15 mins prior to that and wished he'd still been there. That'd been cool to see.


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## Erik (Jan 17, 2000)

If you can't find any anywhere else try the Phylis Haehnle sanctuary. http://www.haehnlesanctuary.org/
I see them quite a bit around there. Although I have yet to get a good pic of one. 
I had one land in a tree limb above me once but it was too dark. When I got the film developed all you could see were two yellow eyes. 
I need to take Ray with me so he can call one in.
BTW... Ray, I really like your pics. Don't know if I've ever told you that


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## Ray Duve (Jun 26, 2004)

Been calling owls for about 20 years.I learned from a fella when I was about 16 or 17 years old.I have become quite good at it with the only owl species that I still nave a tough time with is the long eared owl.If you want some good pics and your in the saginaw area sometime outdoorsman4 drop me a p.m. and I will make arrangments to do some calling.I have about 20 different spots that owls will come well within photo range (one owl that that normal will roost 20 feet or less from me).Anyway if you interested give me a hoot. Ray


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## M1Garand (Apr 12, 2006)

I've called in an eagle with my Foxpro caller with a rabbit squeal. What calls are you getting the owls in with? I have various bird and rodent distress calls on mine.


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## Splitshot (Nov 30, 2000)

Outdoorsman4,

I call them with a electronic wildlife caller. For more information go to www.wildlifetech.com .

You can believe everything you read on this website. I have had mine for over 10 years and have almost 200 different sounds. I use about 30 different owl sounds and have called mostly screech, barred and great horned in large numbers. I have also called in long eared, barn owls, short eared one hawk owl and a saw whet owl. I have not called in a boreal, snowy or great grey owl. Mostly because they are not often around mid Michigan. I have seen snowy owls, but never had my call with me when I did.

Guys like Ray Duve in are lucky. A real person who is good will call them in much easier than all the calls I have seen except for the model I have. My experience has been that they will come every time if the call sounds real. I have called many in during the day and this winter I will try to get more pictures.

Screech owls will not come to a call outside their territory like some of the other owls so you have to be in their territory for them to come in. I get them to answer and will come in as I enter their territory but they dont seem to leave it.

When I start calling, I always call in the small owls first like the screech and saw whet. Even if I am in the territory of a screech owl he will not even answer if I use a great horned or barred owl call. Same is true for the short and long eared owls. The reason, owls eat other owls.

I often call in both barred and great horned and sometimes they will take a pass at one another even to the point of contact. The barred owl is a little smaller, but more aggressive. I have had great horned owls land at my speaker, put there head almost inside and hoot back at it. Thats how good the wildlife caller is. 

I dont call them in much at my cabin, because they will spend the night hooting and looking for the interloper. They are easy to call because they do not tolerate intruders in their territory. I called in a great horned owl in a Lansing park in the daytime and then called in a flock of crows.

The great horned kept challenging the phantom intruder long after I stopped calling. The stories about crows killing an owl is not true. The flock keyed in on the owl and flew at him for a few minutes, but all the owl had to do was look at them, and they backed off. After about 5 minutes of raising hell, the flock of crows left and the owl kept on calling.

Some bird watchers once told me that I was putting fear into all the other little birds, but that is also a myth. Once I start calling little birds of all types will come in to see where the owl is. They will sound the alarm when they see him, or after they first hear me start calling, but once they spot him they go about their business. I put my call under my feeder one day and when the little birds came in, they all took off. I kept it up and finally the chickadees started coming in even when I played the call three feet from the feeder. A little later most of the other birds came back too.

I call lots of other animals and birds as well. Hawks, eagles, ducks, geese, coyotes, deer, elk and many more. One day I was in another park near the Grand River and heard some geese and started playing a goose calls. They came in and started to land in the woods until they saw me. Another time I was calling geese and ducks and heard what I thought was a heard or deer. Turned out to be a bunce of ducks and geese walking in from the river. It was very funny.

I used to call turkeys into my deer decoy until one day I had a flock of turkeys near my decoy and a nice buck walked in. I got ready to shoot, and the turkeys spotted me and everything left in a rush. 

Anyway it is one of the best investments I have ever made. At an M-S outing one time I called in a pair of barred owls and they followed us down the river and hung around at the campsite with lots of people starring in wonder. It was just a lot of fun.

Like M1Garand I have called in lots of hawks and eagles with distress calls. Even racoons. Lol


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