To tell you I can hear an owl hooting and it's weirdly thrilling?

[MistressoftheDarkSide]

Just that really. I'm in a relatively urban area but not commercial, and there's a fair amount of greenery, and it's the first time in the 18 months I've lived here that I've heard an owl hooting.

For some reason it's really pleased me, even though last night would have been perfect being Halloween and all.

Just felt like sharing 😚

I live in London and it's rare to leave the house at night without seeing a fox. I have very occasionally heard owls but it's rare, and I agree, thrilling!
No badgers here though, and years since I have seen a hedgehog (which used to be relatively frequent garden visitors).

Are you sure it's poo not pellets? Owls often have a favourite perch where they sit and digest, and chuck up large rounded pellets containing the indigestible bits (like bones) of their diet. Great fun to dissect them. And the contents provide useful info on their diets.
(Sorry if mansplaining! I find it fascinating)

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/wildlife-nature-conservation

Brilliant reading all the responses this morning - thank you all for sharing my sudden moment of wonder ❤️

I have just had a Google and discovered Mumsnet has a dedicated board for such discussions which pleases me greatly too as I had no idea - I very rarely stray from here tbh.

And thanks for the app recommendations, will definitely think about that 😊

And as the sun is shining I might just have that walk and "touch grass" 😁

Hope you all have a splendid Sunday 😊

We have a tawny in our back garden called Charlie. As soon as it’s dusk he starts. Love it.

We're in the countryside and hear tawny owls a lot here, also see barn owls sometimes. We have hedgehogs in the garden, bats in the roof and used to have badgers down the the road. I think they may have been culled though. The estate owners and game keepers round here are keen to kill everything sadly.

We are rural and have resident tawny and barn owls a few metres from us. The tawny owls are so noisy 🤣🤣 I think they have owl parties too @Rozendantz , usually between 11pm-5am

Not sure if true, but on a podcast I heard the twit twoo is 2 owls.

One says twit and the other replies with twoo!

Yes that's right

We had a barn owl and her chicks in a tree on our lane last year. It was fascinating to watch her fly in and out to them. They were so loud, literally screeching all night.

I see foxes several times a week.

I saw a live badger for the first time ever last year. I was driving late at night, and he or she was running along a main road.
I see dead ones quite often, sadly.

I used to see hedgehogs far more frequently, now that I think of it.

Awww thank you for confirming. I find it so cute!

Little owl conversation.

On the back of your message I’ve just googled and
Yes ! You’re right. They are pellets.

I don’t know why but it doesn’t seem so gross to me now. Will be keeping the pellets for my son who’s a zoologist. Wonder if he could do a study for his Uni thesis 🤔

Do Owls eat bats I wonder as I’d love to know if there are any still around as they all seem to have disappeared since our crappy neighbour converted a barn. Perhaps those pellets will tell us

Thanks wordsmithery ! You’ve given us lots to investigate 💐

Thanks I didn’t know this existed on mumsnet!

I’d love to know the reasoning behind someone voting YABU ????

Totally get you, it’s very special.

Lol did they 😆 ? Didn't even think about the voting thing x

They obviously think I should keep my hooting owls under my hat 😁

owls are establishing territorial rights this time of year so extra noisy- bloody love listening to them though. Reasonable size garden (120 feet) backing on to a wooded area and farmland so we have one or two. Lying in bed and waking to the sound of one on the chimney pot never gets old. Ditto skeins of geese flying over. I can't recall seeing so many as we've had this year...Brent and Greylag all honking their way over to the fields behind us- magical!

Like another poster I also love seeing/hearing buzzards overhead, circling on the thermals

This happened to me last week and I was amazed! It really made me smile

This. I lived for eight years in a house backing onto a wood, and at certain times of year had to stop my lifelong practice of sleeping with the window open because of piercing owlish cheeky-fuckery at 2 am. I think I once threw a boot out the window, screaming ‘Shut up, you noisy owl bastards!’ Dead silence for all of thirty seconds. You could nearly hear the sniggering from the trees.

So jealous of people hearing owl parties

Yes, no boasting about your owls. Keep them to yourself, or everyone will want them…😀

Consider my owls squirrelled selfishly away ongoing 😆

Actually, being a lifelong contrarian, I'm going to flaunt them from the rooftops 😁 or treetops. Or wherever they are perched!!

As a pp says 'nature is soothing' i couldn't agree more.
I live on the edge of a green belt with a field then allotments next to me and the canal nearby.
We see and hear foxes daily , badgers dig our lawn up regularly and we have a pair of squirrels that come daily -they dig the lawn too !
We listen to bats in the summer with a detector and watching the geese flying over lately has been lovely to watch.
Every now and then i can hear owls and we get a heron and the odd swan fly over too.
Yes nature is thrilling and comforting and kind of puts things into perspective i think.

You're right. There's something magical about it. I can hear an owl in the woodlands every evening when I'm walking the dog nearby. I love hearing it 🦉 ❤️ I can't help but wonder what other wildlife is hiding away up there.

Good to read so many people are still hearing wildlife.
Unfortunately due to rampant housebuilding and other urbanisation I no longer hear foxes in the garden, owls in the trees or see parades of ducks waddling along the roads.
I really miss it. The deluge of people leaving the city to live in the country has actually destroyed the very thing they wanted to surrounded by.

Will download the Merlin app thanks PP.
We have a resident in one of our tress and this year they had a baby! OMG you should have heard the noise when they were teaching it to be independant, it had a complete tantrum to the point we were up at 2am looking to make sure no animal was injured in our garden, the beatiful little shit was stood on a branch stamping it's feet!
We are really lucky we see some sort of wildlife every day.