Finally, after a summer of great frustration, I'm greeted tonight with that familiar call "Who cooks for you, who cooks for y'all?". No I haven't been on the sauce. I'm talking about something most of you have heard at night in the woods but may not have known what it was. Well, if you can remember "Who cooks for you, Who cooks for y'all?" you'll find it matches up well with the hoot of the Barred Owl. This sound will be a familiar friend after the sun goes down on your outdoor adventures in the eastern parts of the U.S. and Canada. I've been here in NW Ontario most of the summer and haven't heard one, until tonight.
Same here and I see them damn near every night, as of light. There are a pair that keep flying back and fro across the yard. One flew out from a tree out back while I was walking under it. He couldn't have been 5 feet from me and you still couldn't hear a sound from him flying.
Barred owls come to my moose calling. Anybody else have that happen?
Over the past ten years I've seen quite a few barred owls in the southern Interior of BC, don't recall seeing them before that. I'd be concerned about my moose calling except that bull moose come to the sound also.
There is a spot, far out in western Alaska, where a river comes out of the hills to meander across a few miles of tundra toward a larger river which then empties into the Bering Sea. Traveling in winter, we often stop at this spot to snack or take a quick break since it offers shelter from the winds of the tundra and the hazards of river travel. An owl almost always queries, "Who cooks.....". It/they sure sound like barred owls, but it is well beyond the range where they are said to live.
Last edited by Klikitarik; 08/29/17.
Sometimes, the air you 'let in'matters less than the air you 'let out'.
Loads of info on the range expansion of barred owl.
Klikitarik, might even be possible there are a few in your area as this paper says they were in SE AK in '67. If they moved along forested river corridors from the eastern part of N America, perhaps they did the same from SE to your locale. I bet if you could get a picture or even a sound recording on your phone, next time you're in that area, there'd be some very interested bird biologists!
The desert is a true treasure for him who seeks refuge from men and the evil of men. In it is contentment In it is death and all you seek (Quoted from "The Bleeding of the Stone" Ibrahim Al-Koni)
Yep. Turns out that the expansion of territory of the barred owl is having at least as much impact on the northern spotted owl population as logging. That's not a very popular bit of biology among the tree-hugging environmentalists.
Tom
Anyone who thinks there's two sides to everything hasn't met a M�bius strip.
Barred Owl story #1: KYHillChick and I went to Lake Openago for a 2 week moose watching trip at the dawn of our relationship. One night, I was showing off my woodland skills and let off a Barred Owl call about 2200. I immediately got an answer from a nearby Owl. That set off another owl and then another. Pretty soon all of Algonquin Provincial Park was lit up and then the wolves chimed in. Zowie! That was a show. My girlfriend thought I was a Nature God. Little Angus was probably conceived that night.
Barred Owl story #2: Doing a barred owl call is SOP for turkey hunters. I do one passibly, enough to get turkeys gobbling. I'm no expert. However, one day an owl lit on a branch about 20 yards from my treestand while I was bowhunting for deer, and I thought I'd pull his leg. I did my bit, and got him and his mate so fired up, that I thought they were going to fly in and attack me.
Barred Owl store #3: I worked at a frozen cheeseburger company back in the mid 90s. The new President showed up and a couple days later I got a call to come up to his office. I figured I was getting the ax, but old Norb had transferred from Michigan and wanted lessons on how to hunt around Cincinnati. On a frequent basis, I was called to his office and asked questions on deer and turkey hunting. One day, I ran into Norb as he was coming through the Sales and Marketing area. He motioned me over. We were in a mass of cubicles the size of a tennis court.
Norb:"So tell me again about owl calls."
Me: I explained again the rudiments of using a Barred Owl call to cause a shock gobble with turkeys.
Norb: "Would you demonstrate?"
Me: "Right here?"
Norb: "Yes."
Me: "Well it's kind of who-cooks-for-you-who-"
Norb: "No, I mean do the call."
Me: It's loud.
Norb: "Do it."
So I did it. Right away, 50 heads popped up out of the cubicles and managers ran out of their offices to see what was causing the fuss.
Barred owls come to my moose calling. Anybody else have that happen?
Over the past ten years I've seen quite a few barred owls in the southern Interior of BC, don't recall seeing them before that. I'd be concerned about my moose calling except that bull moose come to the sound also.
Interesting. I saw one that came in while we were moose calling in northern Alberta, didn't realize he may have actually been coming to the call.
'Tis far better to walk alone than to follow a crowd going the wrong way.
I`m not from Alaska, but northern Wi., and we are lucky to have them close enough to hear most nites. They are very easy to call to you, if you can duplicate the language they speak. Have called them in to just over our heads many times during the evenings in summer. Once when in a tree bow hunting. A very neat bird!!
Easy, if you can "Hoot" like a real Owl...takes a little practice. My grand-daughters are trying, not much luck so far. I`ve called them from as far as I could hear them..must be doing something right. This summer camping I heard one call about hour or so before dark, and had him in a tree above me in about 15 min`s. or so, also had seven people watching the show. That was cool.
Heck no...I ask them about their day, how the crows behaved, and if the kids are doing well.. Yes, with changes in tone and rythem. When they get close, you can really hear the variences in the call, abreviations and such...some have a frog in the throat,and have a hard time getting started. each seems to be a bit different. We had one by the house two years ago that would stop by in the evenings to talk, most of the month of July. The kids really got a bang outta him. We`d lite a fire, sit a few moments, he`d show and start responding. Would come right above us close enough to see by fire light. Some nites he`d be out there till 3 in the morning..no fooling. I caught one years ago that had been shot by some fool...couldn`t fly well. Lived in a mobile home at the time. Took him about two weeks to heal. He would fly down the hallway and back, landing on the lamp pole in the living room. You could not hear him when he flew. He did get better, and I let him go. I still have a picture of him, some where, on the lamp pole.
