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Author Topic: Owls -- lots of them! What does it mean (or does it mean anything?)  (Read 4851 times)

NatureMade

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We are experiencing "extreme weirdness" these days at our homestead in the woods. Five days ago, 3 little screech owls came visiting just as the sun went down. They lined up on a tree limb over our heads, and made cute little vocalizations at us. They were so persistent in watching and talking about us we got paranoid and decided they must want us to leave. We figured they wanted a drink of water from the wading pool we keep for the dogs and were waiting for us (and all 11 dogs) to go inside. We did.

Next evening, I was sitting out writing on my laptop, when I was suddenly showered with cedar needles. I looked up to see a tiny screech owl sitting on a limb over my head. It looked at me for a minute, then swooped down, skimming over my hair on its way to another tree in front of me -- presumably to get a better look. It was soon joined by 3 more owls -- all staring at me and making strange vocalizations. (I should mention here, for those of you who don't know, that a screech owl ordinarily sounds exactly like a bad imitation of a ghost. Kind of a trilling woo-hoo-hoo-hoo, trailing off at the end. NOT THESE GUYS! They were making weird buzzing and metallic clicking sounds like nothing I have heard before. Twice, one of them made a loud metallic clunking sound that reminded me of someone hitting a trash can lid with a hammer. Very odd.)

To make a long story at least a little bit shorter...

This was the 5th night of owls. Each night it gets stranger, and they get more numerous. Last night I counted 6 of them swooping around the yard and I am not sure I saw all of them, so there could have been more. They even came down and walked around on the ground in front of our dogs (who barked at first, but are now bored with them and refuse to take the bait). The owls gather together facing one another and appear to be "talking". I swear they are plotting something!! :eek: Its like a Harry Potter movie!  I keep expecting them to have little letters in their beaks! ;)

Anyway, I can't wait to see how many show up tonight. I'm glad they aren't Great Horned owls -- I might be worried.

Has anyone else ever heard of or witnessed this sort of flocking behavior? It is definitely odd and I am starting think it might be some sort of omen. I have no idea what is could mean though. Any ideas?

veggiewolf

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Re: Owls -- lots of them! What does it mean (or does it mean anything?)
« Reply #1 on: June 19, 2012, 10:46:16 am »
Quote from: NatureMade;60809
...

 
Screech owls are fairly sociable.  I'd say you're living in prime owl habitat.
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MoonCrone

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Re: Owls -- lots of them! What does it mean (or does it mean anything?)
« Reply #2 on: June 19, 2012, 11:52:47 am »
Quote from: NatureMade;60809
We are experiencing "extreme weirdness" these days at our homestead in the woods. Five days ago, 3 little screech owls came visiting just as the sun went down. They lined up on a tree limb over our heads, and made cute little vocalizations at us. They were so persistent in watching and talking about us we got paranoid and decided they must want us to leave. We figured they wanted a drink of water from the wading pool we keep for the dogs and were waiting for us (and all 11 dogs) to go inside. We did.

Next evening, I was sitting out writing on my laptop, when I was suddenly showered with cedar needles. I looked up to see a tiny screech owl sitting on a limb over my head. It looked at me for a minute, then swooped down, skimming over my hair on its way to another tree in front of me -- presumably to get a better look. It was soon joined by 3 more owls -- all staring at me and making strange vocalizations. (I should mention here, for those of you who don't know, that a screech owl ordinarily sounds exactly like a bad imitation of a ghost. Kind of a trilling woo-hoo-hoo-hoo, trailing off at the end. NOT THESE GUYS! They were making weird buzzing and metallic clicking sounds like nothing I have heard before. Twice, one of them made a loud metallic clunking sound that reminded me of someone hitting a trash can lid with a hammer. Very odd.)

To make a long story at least a little bit shorter...

This was the 5th night of owls. Each night it gets stranger, and they get more numerous. Last night I counted 6 of them swooping around the yard and I am not sure I saw all of them, so there could have been more. They even came down and walked around on the ground in front of our dogs (who barked at first, but are now bored with them and refuse to take the bait). The owls gather together facing one another and appear to be "talking". I swear they are plotting something!! :eek: Its like a Harry Potter movie!  I keep expecting them to have little letters in their beaks! ;)

Anyway, I can't wait to see how many show up tonight. I'm glad they aren't Great Horned owls -- I might be worried.

Has anyone else ever heard of or witnessed this sort of flocking behavior? It is definitely odd and I am starting think it might be some sort of omen. I have no idea what is could mean though. Any ideas?


How wonderful!  
Owls are such lovely creatures.

If you have eliminated the mundane... like could there possibly be a rodent problem in the area maybe? (that's what would usually draw a flock of them in like that...)

then on a spiritual level I find owls are the portent of a time coming for gathering new wisdom, or possibly a death of some kind, (not always the mortal kind, sometimes the Shamanic kind), and they can herald a time of change.  

They can also tell us to trust our instincts more, to pay much closer attention to detail, to stand up for ourselves, and to be brave.

Sometimes they warn of trickery afoot.  
Owls comes to us when we need to open our eyes, and study the situation at hand with a clearer mind.
If we watch and listen quietly we can figure out what is happening behind the scenes, and confront those who are trying to deceive us at the appropriate time.

I hope that gives you a bit of insight.

MoonCrone
It\'s all about the Ebb and Flow...

mandrina

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Re: Owls -- lots of them! What does it mean (or does it mean anything?)
« Reply #3 on: June 19, 2012, 01:11:33 pm »
Quote from: veggiewolf;60811
Screech owls are fairly sociable.  I'd say you're living in prime owl habitat.


to the op. 6 isn't a huge number, I was thinking like the final owl scene in the first movie and you're not near there yet.  But if you live in a good area for them, 6 isn't too bad.

Or maybe they are plotting a takeover. . . .
Katrina

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NatureMade

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Re: Owls -- lots of them! What does it mean (or does it mean anything?)
« Reply #4 on: June 19, 2012, 11:31:08 pm »
Quote from: MoonCrone;60823
How wonderful!  
Owls are such lovely creatures.

If you have eliminated the mundane... like could there possibly be a rodent problem in the area maybe? (that's what would usually draw a flock of them in like that...)


 
Mystery solved! Not rodents though. It was the dogs who gave me the clue. For days I have noticed the dogs sniffing the ground around our cedar trees and then looking slowly up the trunks all the way around. Every once in awhile they would stand up and put their paws on the tree and sniff at the trunk, then bite at the tree and jump down quickly, snapping at something on the ground that I never could see. They were all doing it so I knew it was just not canine insanity. I kept trying to figure out what they were doing, and from the 1/2" diameter holes I kept seeing all over the ground I had a suspicion that cicadas were emerging and climbing the trees to shed their exoskeletons, but... I never could find any! So tonight, after the flock of owls showed up yet again and began swooping all over the place, diving to the ground and back up again, I decided that they must be eating cicadas.

Still... it was only a theory until I could get proof. So I waited and watched the dogs instead of the owls. As soon as I saw Claudius (one of the dogs) head over to a tree, I got up and went over to examine it. Sure enough, way up where he could not reach, I found a small cicada. It is a different species than the huge, noisy ones we had last year, and since it is brown, it is hard to see on the tree bark. I accidentally dropped the poor cicada, and before I could retrieve it to show it to my husband (witnesses are so important in science :whis: ) Claudius scarfed it up. Which proves that dogs and owls have at least one thing in common -- they LOVE cicadas. So, mystery solved, and I can stop wondering about aliens and surveillance drones. Too bad! That might have been exciting.  ;)

Oh, and MoonCrone, thank you for the wonderful insights about owls as spiritual symbols. Very interesting! I love owls -- especially these cute little guys -- so  its fun to read new things about them.

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