Oh that's funny Hoot, you call me on a comma. And 3 buddies like that you corrected me...small stuff folks, don't sweat it. I don't think I left a comma out .... PS I have not heard an hoot since I posted. I continue to be on alert ..
We have owls in Maine, but I don't think I've heard one since I've been here. I heard them several times growing up in Michigan, but I spent more time in the woods at night than I do as an adult.
"A Kentucky family's decorated Christmas tree was inside their home for four days before it was discovered to be home to an owl. Michele White told FOX 56 that the young owl managed to be undetected in the family's living room Christmas tree for four days by blending in with the tree's branches. "I have three dogs," White told WDKY-TV. "We use this room nonstop: watch TV; the kitchen's right here; no indication." https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/yuletide-owl-found-roosting-kentucky-022036715.html
Can't recall ever hearing an owl hoot/hooting or even seeing an owl. I have a few owl figurines that I like. Owls are cute and it's weird the way they turn their heads. Kudos to Animal Planet.
I had to go look for answers. An owl’s eyes are tubular (built almost like telescopes) that are fixed in their eye sockets by bone. This gives them great forward vision, but owls cannot turn or roll their eyes...they can only look straight ahead, which explains the (literally) fixed stare that they have. Structurally, the ability to rotate their heads is due to a special pivot joint in their vertebrae. -Some owl species can rotate their heads 180° in either direction (1/2 of a full rotation), meaning they can look straight behind themselves. -Some owl species can rotate their heads 270° (3/4 of a full rotation) in either direction...that's twice the rotation that humans can do. They can move their head to the left and end up looking directly to the right, and vice versa. If a human turns its head too far, it can cut off blood supply to the brain. Unlike humans, the holes in an owl's vertebrae are up to 10x larger than the arteries traveling through them, thus permitting the blood to continue flowing to its brain, unconstricted as it twists. In fact, an owls bottom 2 vertebrae lack any holes, providing slack to the arteries. -Unlike most other animals, an owl's arteries enlarge (rather that shrink) as they approach the brain. It is thought that this provides a place for blood to pool in order to supply the brain as the head swivels.
I still remember the first one I ever heard. It was out at the lake maybe 30 years ago. I was spending the night alone in the cabin. The owl was in a tree right behind the cabin, so it was very loud and spooky. The spooky part was it sounded more like a person imitating an owl. I'd seen too many cowboy movies.
When my youngest lived here she could imitate birds and tormented the owls by calling back to them. That meant she was invading their territory as another owl and the calls would continue until she stopped and thus the owl won. He had the last hoot.