Great horned owls have always symbolized wisdom, knowledge, and the afterlife. In the wild, they are fierce predators and even fiercer protectors of their young, and this maternal owl in the below ...

The hooting of a great horned owl is an instantly recognizable sound and always sends shivers traveling along the spine. The after-dark calls of this large predatory bird also got me to thinking about ...

Q:My son and I are fascinated by owls and would really like to see more of them. What owls might we see in the metro area and where should we look for them? A: Two things clue us in that an owl is in ...

Spotting an owl glide through the treetops is a thrilling experience, its silhouette a shadow against the twilight sky. A hallmark of owls is their completely silent flight. But when they do make ...

It was well north of 3 a.m. when the soft hooting of a distant great horned owl pulled me from the gentle arms of Morpheus, that mythological god of sleep and dreams. In the heat and stillness of the ...

CHAMPAIGN -- “Birds of omen, dark and foul,” wrote Sir Walter Scott about owls, once considered harbingers of doom, death, and destruction. In Medieval Europe, owls were thought to be witches and an ...

December and January we are wakened just before dawn by the calls of a pair of Great Horned Owls. (Are you up…me too-me too?) The males are returning to the territories of their mates. (After the ...

It’s 2 a.m. on Easter morning, and I’m awakened by "Hoo ho-hoo? Hoo hooo." The cadence is like, “Who’s awake? Me, too.” I open my window. The night is still. For certain, a great horned owl is calling ...

It’s March. This is when I find myself torn between clinging to winter and beginning to look for signs of spring, for the forest to begin to shake off its winter torpor. A time to look for breeding ...

DEAR JOAN: We have lived in a quiet residential neighborhood very near downtown for 42 years. Yesterday, a murder of crows was making a terrible racket in our back garden. When we investigated there ...