Fun Owl Facts (

Well, right behind me, this is incredible. Uh, we got a barred owl joining us on our winter camp here. Uh, so we were hot tenting just south of Algonquin Park and we've been here for the week and, uh, I guess he's used to us. Um, uh, he's not bothered by us at all. So he's up right above the tent. If you can't see him behind me, I'll, I got some footage of him. And, um, it's kind of cool. Like it's a barred owl and, uh, they're very common owls. So they don't seem to be too disturbed by, by people. And you see them a lot during the winter time. Here's the thing about owls. Um, you've got three different, um, types. They've got the ones with a yellow eye and they're ones that will hunt, uh, during the day and night. Usually dusk and dawn is what they prefer. And like a great horned owl, a great gray owl, they have yellow eyes. And then you've got actually, um, like a hawk owl. Uh, they, they have orange eyes and they actually prefer hunting during the day. And then you've got something like the barred owl, which has black eyes and they only like, uh, hunting at night. So maybe he's just having a snooze above our tent and waiting for night. We did hear him last night. He's the one that calls who cooks for you, who cooks for you all. And it's the most common, uh, call you'll hear while you're out in your canoe trip or winter camping. Um, they're also thinking about, uh, mating right now. This is, uh, just the end of January. Usually it's mid February. They'll, they'll start actually even before that. And great horned owls are the first to nest. The first person that I still actually make a nest in mid February and have chicks by, by March. Um, really incredible species to be quite honest. I used to ban birds and I was the raptor rehabilitator at a wildlife rehab center. I took care of a lot of owls. Um, the owl's feathers, um, are combed. So they're, they're like this. So when they fly, the air doesn't go through them. It's cupped and therefore they're very silent. That's why you don't hear them. And, um, also is where their ears are. They're, they're very sensitive to motion and sound is why they'll find the voles and mice in the snow and then plunge down for them. So this guy or girl, um, barred owl, um, it's had its satellite is its face. It has a dish shaped face and its ear lobes are right here. Whereas the great horned owl has horns, right? So say this, so does the long haired owl and short ear owl. They have little horns of tufts of feathers. That is the satellite. It's not their ear, their ears down below that. So they use it for, as a satellite and they can, owls can rotate their head to almost 360 degrees, almost. And that's actually impossible for any other species because you do that, you create a blood clot and you die. The blood doesn't go to your head. Whereas the owl can do that because it wants to rotate its head and not move its body while it's trying to hunt. Yeah. Fascinating species. And, um, just so glad the ones decided to join us. Now, when you're looking at an owl and you want to take a picture of an owl, um, yeah, it's great, but then move on and don't disturb it. Uh, I did write a piece just last week for explore magazine when I used to work for the rehab center. Uh, we got a call from a great gray owl in Toronto, uh, park in Toronto. And the birders have been taking pictures of it and that's exciting to do. And they're putting on their list. You know, birders do a list and that's fantastic too. I would do the same. And what happens to, they were doing that for a few days and, um, the bird fell to the ground. So I was called to take care of it. And when I got to it, it was frozen dead and it was dead. So we did a autopsy to see if there was any disease to the owl and actually had starved to death. So the hypothesis that there was the, uh, the birders at the time, you know, we're around the owl so much, it couldn't actually hunt. Um, so therefore it couldn't feed. That's not happening now. I mean, this barred owl joined us. It just flew there and we're like going inside of the tent and everything else and getting lunch going. And he's like, or she's like, Hey guys, how you doing? Owls. Fantastic. They also, um, they will eat their prey and they will not poop out the bones. Um, and fur, they'll actually cough it up into pellets. So you'll below their perch and find maybe this perch here, uh, there'll be a bunch of pellets that will look like poop, but it'll be bone. And feathers. And that's what an owl does. It regurgitates, creating a pellet. I had a job collecting those and then bring them into the lab and tear them apart and see what actually the owls were eating. It was a good job. All right. Well, thanks for coming out for another video. Uh, who knew this was going to happen? I was just out with my buddies, uh, enjoying our winter camp. And I'll do a video on that. I just thought I would talk about owls for a while. Who cooks for you? Cooks for you all.