Amazing!

I saw an owl a few month ago. I thought it was a moth fluttering right near my head, and swatted it away. I realized that it was still too cold for moths, and that an owl had just alighted on a tree, about 30 meters away. Huge. Didn't make a sound. Gone again in a blink, leaving the branch deeply swaying. Almost scary.

Now, if I was a rodent, this silent night-vision hunter would be the size of a Cessna .

^Do you lack an eye? How did your depth perception not chime in? O.O

The owl would kick your ass in a staring contest.

Interesting that you should mention the eyes, I will elaborate because it gets even more interesting. The owl was just to my left and a little behind me, so I only peripherally glimpsed (with one eye) his flapping silhouette against the twilight as he landed some distance away. I now re-estimate it to be much less that 100 meters, more like that in feet actually.

I scanned the branches once I realized it was too cold for moths, suspecting that it was an owl because of how big it was at a distance. Once I located it, I kept my eyes locked on him as to not lose him, and started to grope my way up the two-story porch and stairs in the back of the house. It's like this...


____| - where my binoculars are
_/__| - first floor porch
_/__| - where I was


Now, the first floor porch is built with 10 inch joists, plus the decking, and the stairs come up through the porch floor. So, in the time that it took me to dart my head past the thickness of the first floor porch to try to re-fix my eye on him he took off and left only that deeply swaying branch. I realized tha he was fixed on my eyes too. So yeah, he won that staring contest .

>> ^ForgedReality:
^Do you lack an eye? How did your depth perception not chime in? O.O
The owl would kick your ass in a staring contest.

*wings

As strong a case for evolution as I've seen. Satellite dish head feathers are amazing, not to mention all of this owl's other adaptations.

Amazing footage, thanks!

That was intense.

I like owls, *promote

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Friday, August 7th, 2009 12:34pm PDT - promote requested by cybrbeast.

In a nice bit of synchronicity, I just saw my first owls (well, first that wasn't a screech owl) a few days ago. We live right on the edge of town, and were driving just a quarter away from home, when we saw two "somethings" on the road ahead. First thought was "Turkeys!", never having run across any other bird that big on the ground. As we got closer, it was clear they were owls...probably great horned owls, but possibly barred owls. Kind of a surprise to see something new after 50 years.

Does anyone know who the narrator on this is?

*quality

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by lurgee.