One of the most rewarding nature activities I have done, and do regularly, is calling owls. I would not recommend this to just anyone. You really need to have some experience with owls, birds of prey and wildlife before attempting this.

I use to go to work for the Forest Service and was an Interpretive Specialist and Environmental Education Instructor. I wrote and delivered various programs for individuals ages 3 to 103. One program I did often was Nature at Night and everyone seemed to really enjoy it.

On part of the program was hiking 5 miles on a trail at 10pm. The end of the trail was in a very secluded area near a wilderness area. I would have everyone stand back away from the area I was in and I would call owls. I had great success with Barred Owls and Great Horned Owls. After just a few calls, one would answer in a distance. Another call would prove it to be closer. Several times I have actually had the owl swoop down from the night sky right between me and the individuals on the hike. It was an amazing experience HOWEVER….

If you do try this activity, study the owl you plan to call, listen to recordings of its call and copy that over and over until you get as close to the call as possible. When beginning this, only call the owl until it answers once or twice, then leave the area. It is not advised, without experience, to call the owl to where you are standing. I know of an Interpretive Specialist in North Carolina that got a nice gash in his head from calling the owl to him without protection on his head. I always wore a hard hat when calling the owls, and even then had them hit the hat on two occasions. Never make other animal sounds when doing this. Often when we try to mock other animals, our sounds end up coming out like a very injured animal. This will draw attention from those who prey on such animals and you can find yourself being attacked like and “injured rabbit”.

Without much experience in this field, I would suggest doing this activity with a professional OR merely calling the owl once or twice to get the pleasure of hearing a return call. At this point, do not take the encounter further. There will be plenty of pleasure in your heart by simply getting that one response call, a verbal connection, from these beautiful birds.

*in addition, NEVER provide food for wild animals, no matter how tempting it may be. What you will be doing is killing that animal. Leaving food for animals in the wild is no different than slicing their throats with your bare hands. They come to rely on this food and will expect all humans to provide it, eventually attacking humans for food because they will associate humans with food. When this occurs, they are often killed…..due to our human stupidity.

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