I miss my owl

AprilMayJune · June 25, 2014

We were lucky to have a great horned owl (or owls) living in our subdivision. For the last few years, many nights one would sit on top of our chimney and hoot. Unsurprisingly, the rodent and rabbit population in our yard plummeted. Even the birds in general were pretty limited, other than a robin's nest here and there. I couldn't tell you when the last time was that I saw a rabbit in our yard.

Until this year. Haven't heard the owl in a while. A rabbit has basically decided he is part of our family now. We had a chipmunk get into the house and stuck in a wall (aggggh) and I see them scurrying all over the place. Earlier today, I went out to one of my plots (which has a ton of bush green beans growing in a thick Bean Jungle,) and the rabbit was literally laying in the bean plants, having set up a bed. Like, right in the middle of the plot. He just looked at me and then sort of half heartedly ran off for a bit. Needless to say, our next stop was a run to the garden center and now my husband's put a fence around the plots. I also got a fake owl. If only I still had my real owl to be on patrol!

I do wish that darn rabbit wasn't so cute...I felt sort of guilty about ruining his new bed, even though he was the one who decided to move into my bean patch. He already has some kind of home set up under one of our pine trees, so I maintain that my yard has a one-rabbit-house maximum.

peppero · June 25, 2014

When I used to have an early morning walk I used to carry on a conversation with a neighborhood owl. It was fun.

jon

Worth1 · June 25, 2014

I have all fashion of owls in my yard and the woods out back at night.

Just the other night my neighbor lady asked me what this noise was.
I told her it was our screech owls cooing.

ddsack · June 26, 2014

We live in the woods, and throughout the years have had few problems with rabbits, mainly because we used to have dogs, and then the fox population exploded. This year (no dogs and cat is getting older) I noticed some cute rabbits jumping and playing in the grass next to my back woods garden site. One adolescent came into the garden while I was weeding and snacked mainly on dandelion blossoms and clover. He seem unconcerned about my presence. My little buddy, I thought.

Well, if he would have stayed there, he had it made. But he and perhaps his parents (two larger rabbits) moved around to my front garden which is protected by heavy duty deer netting. Keeps the deer out just fine, but the rabbits decided to nip the thick plastic strands to make cute little doors on a couple of sides of the garden. I noticed my newly sprouted beans and corn were being decimated, but didn't know about their little doors until we came home one evening and found the three inside the garden fence. Two magically melted outside the fence, but the younger one must have forgotten where the holes were, and I just chased him around the garden until I finally opened my wider gate and shooed him out. I closed the gate and was walking back to the house, when there he was ... inside again! That was when I finally found the holes, which were neatly clipped and impossible to see until my nose was about 2 feet away from them. Much as I hated to do it, I gave permission to my husband to get out his shotgun, and he got two last night, and another one this evening, when I found 3 new holes chewed in the fence. I had wired over the other ones yesterday. It still seems odd to me that they went through the trouble of chewing through the fence. The garden is raised beds with wood chips all around the outside perimeter and between the rows. It actually looks a little barren at this time of year, because the plants are not that big yet, and the bean seeds were only on their first true leaves.

With all the grass, clover and dandelions they could possible eat on the outside, it seems silly so for them to want to get in to investigate what looks like a flat spread of wood chips, not food. Some of the bean rows will re-grow, but my little Nickel baby beans were nipped to the ground.

Lucky I found some unused seeds and re-sowed this evening. But that's the last time I will get sentimental about rabbits.

AprilMayJune · June 26, 2014

This guy chewed through my fence too! In less than a day. Aaaaggggh. We're going to have to get some metal fencing...and if that doesn't work, well, he may have won. I will try some other deterrents but that's about all I have in my toolkit. I put the fake owl right next to the hole he chewed, even though I am 100% sure he could not care less. That little thief!

Oh, gardening. Every year it's something. :-/

Geezer · July 7, 2014

Thirty years ago I worked the midnight security shift at the Indiana School for the blind. We had Great Horned, Barred and Screech owls on the campus. In late fall through early spring you could locate them by their hoots, then back- light them against a full moon.

Those were fun times.....

**Lee** · July 7, 2014

Owls are great to have around. I wish we had more in the area
to keep the rat population down.

Yes, everyone please say to yourself.....
"Rabbits are long eared rats."

AprilMayJune · July 7, 2014

So two things have happened since I started this thread:

- the rabbits, while still around -- I've seen them a handful of times in the past week or so -- have decided to find somewhere else to live. Or at least, they're no longer attempting to live in my bean patch. I have no idea why they decided to stop going into the raised beds -- it's like the main rabbit offender chewed through the fence just to see if he could do it, and then decided to move on.

- I heard an owl in the distance hooting about a week or so ago. So at least I know they're still hanging out near here...maybe the rabbit/chipmunk population was just unusually high this year, haha...

beeman · July 7, 2014

I decided enough was enough. So 11 squirrels and 10 chipmunks later my garden is no longer the local menagerie, all taken within the last 5 days. A world record I should think?

bwaynef · July 9, 2014

A couple of weeks ago I was moving some plants to be watered automatically while I was away on vacation. I heard this awful hissing. Not a screech or a hoot, but a VERY loud hiss. I knew immediately that one of "my boys" was talking to me. I look up and one of the young Barred Owls is in a branch almost directly over head. The branch is maybe 20' up and about 10' long. He was still hissing up a storm and I told him I needed to work. I look up again, there was another one. Continue moving plants, look up, and there's 4 young Barred Owls on one branch, all watching me as twilight falls and I'm trying to get plants moved because I'm leaving the next day.

Y'all should've heard the ruckus!

bwaynef · July 9, 2014

By the time I came back from the week-long vacation, I noticed that their voices'd changed and it was throatier and much less "hissy".

AprilMayJune · July 9, 2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by bwaynef

A couple of weeks ago I was moving some plants to be watered automatically while I was away on vacation. I heard this awful hissing. Not a screech or a hoot, but a VERY loud hiss. I knew immediately that one of "my boys" was talking to me. I look up and one of the young Barred Owls is in a branch almost directly over head. The branch is maybe 20' up and about 10' long. He was still hissing up a storm and I told him I needed to work. I look up again, there was another one. Continue moving plants, look up, and there's 4 young Barred Owls on one branch, all watching me as twilight falls and I'm trying to get plants moved because I'm leaving the next day.

Y'all should've heard the ruckus!

That's awesome!

June 25, 2014	#1
AprilMayJune Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Zone 5 Posts: 63	I miss my owl We were lucky to have a great horned owl (or owls) living in our subdivision. For the last few years, many nights one would sit on top of our chimney and hoot. Unsurprisingly, the rodent and rabbit population in our yard plummeted. Even the birds in general were pretty limited, other than a robin's nest here and there. I couldn't tell you when the last time was that I saw a rabbit in our yard. Until this year. Haven't heard the owl in a while. A rabbit has basically decided he is part of our family now. We had a chipmunk get into the house and stuck in a wall (aggggh) and I see them scurrying all over the place. Earlier today, I went out to one of my plots (which has a ton of bush green beans growing in a thick Bean Jungle,) and the rabbit was literally laying in the bean plants, having set up a bed. Like, right in the middle of the plot. He just looked at me and then sort of half heartedly ran off for a bit. Needless to say, our next stop was a run to the garden center and now my husband's put a fence around the plots. I also got a fake owl. If only I still had my real owl to be on patrol! I do wish that darn rabbit wasn't so cute...I felt sort of guilty about ruining his new bed, even though he was the one who decided to move into my bean patch. He already has some kind of home set up under one of our pine trees, so I maintain that my yard has a one-rabbit-house maximum.

June 26, 2014	#4
ddsack Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Northern Minnesota - zone 3 Posts: 3,223	We live in the woods, and throughout the years have had few problems with rabbits, mainly because we used to have dogs, and then the fox population exploded. This year (no dogs and cat is getting older) I noticed some cute rabbits jumping and playing in the grass next to my back woods garden site. One adolescent came into the garden while I was weeding and snacked mainly on dandelion blossoms and clover. He seem unconcerned about my presence. My little buddy, I thought. Well, if he would have stayed there, he had it made. But he and perhaps his parents (two larger rabbits) moved around to my front garden which is protected by heavy duty deer netting. Keeps the deer out just fine, but the rabbits decided to nip the thick plastic strands to make cute little doors on a couple of sides of the garden. I noticed my newly sprouted beans and corn were being decimated, but didn't know about their little doors until we came home one evening and found the three inside the garden fence. Two magically melted outside the fence, but the younger one must have forgotten where the holes were, and I just chased him around the garden until I finally opened my wider gate and shooed him out. I closed the gate and was walking back to the house, when there he was ... inside again! That was when I finally found the holes, which were neatly clipped and impossible to see until my nose was about 2 feet away from them. Much as I hated to do it, I gave permission to my husband to get out his shotgun, and he got two last night, and another one this evening, when I found 3 new holes chewed in the fence. I had wired over the other ones yesterday. It still seems odd to me that they went through the trouble of chewing through the fence. The garden is raised beds with wood chips all around the outside perimeter and between the rows. It actually looks a little barren at this time of year, because the plants are not that big yet, and the bean seeds were only on their first true leaves. With all the grass, clover and dandelions they could possible eat on the outside, it seems silly so for them to want to get in to investigate what looks like a flat spread of wood chips, not food. Some of the bean rows will re-grow, but my little Nickel baby beans were nipped to the ground. Lucky I found some unused seeds and re-sowed this evening. But that's the last time I will get sentimental about rabbits. __________________ Dee **************

July 7, 2014	#7
Lee Tomatopalooza™ Moderator Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: NC-Zone 7 Posts: 2,188	Owls are great to have around. I wish we had more in the area to keep the rat population down. Yes, everyone please say to yourself..... "Rabbits are long eared rats." __________________ Intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put one in a fruit salad. Cuostralee - The best thing on sliced bread.

June 25, 2014	#2
peppero Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: selmer, tn Posts: 2,944	When I used to have an early morning walk I used to carry on a conversation with a neighborhood owl. It was fun. jon

June 25, 2014	#3
Worth1 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Den of Drunken Fools Posts: 38,539	I have all fashion of owls in my yard and the woods out back at night. Just the other night my neighbor lady asked me what this noise was. I told her it was our screech owls cooing.

July 7, 2014	#6
Geezer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Brownsburg, IN Posts: 293	Thirty years ago I worked the midnight security shift at the Indiana School for the blind. We had Great Horned, Barred and Screech owls on the campus. In late fall through early spring you could locate them by their hoots, then back- light them against a full moon. Those were fun times.....

July 7, 2014	#9
beeman Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 692	I decided enough was enough. So 11 squirrels and 10 chipmunks later my garden is no longer the local menagerie, all taken within the last 5 days. A world record I should think?

July 9, 2014	#10
bwaynef Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: Clemson SC Posts: 143	A couple of weeks ago I was moving some plants to be watered automatically while I was away on vacation. I heard this awful hissing. Not a screech or a hoot, but a VERY loud hiss. I knew immediately that one of "my boys" was talking to me. I look up and one of the young Barred Owls is in a branch almost directly over head. The branch is maybe 20' up and about 10' long. He was still hissing up a storm and I told him I needed to work. I look up again, there was another one. Continue moving plants, look up, and there's 4 young Barred Owls on one branch, all watching me as twilight falls and I'm trying to get plants moved because I'm leaving the next day. Y'all should've heard the ruckus!