owls & headlights (1 Viewer)

Barn Owls in particular. this may seem a bit of a dumb post really but its had me thinking and i really don't know where else to ask

riding my bike along one of my local country lanes on the way home from work i have recently begun coming across the local Barn Owls, which i have no doubt are resident birds but it is only with the recent drawing in of daylight (and a few late shifts at work) that i've been able to see them with any regularity .
The thing that interests me in particular is that a number of times now i've caught an owl sitting on a post, in my headlights, at which point it'll fly off ahead along the low hedge / verge in front of me. the really interesting thing is that for a good distance they keep within my beam of light. At first i was absolutely stunned at such an amazing sight - after all an owl flying along the verge in the dead quiet darkness of night, occasionally once or twice slowing into a hover before flying on again is part of a world you never normally see. And generally speaking there is no-one else, no cars, no houses, nothing else along these little roads so it is really quite an experience. But just thinking about it

... what is actually happening here ?

i find it very surprising that if the bird is genuinely alarmed that it doesn't just fly up over the hedge and across the fields, so are my lights "blinding" the bird in such a way that it can't see beyond the range of my beam so has to stay in it ... or are they being used as an aid to its hunting .... Or is it actually nothing of the sort and my lights make no difference whatsoever and i'm getting too excited about nothing ?

The lights themselves are new this year, i have 2 of them which emit about 1000 candlepower each so they are quite bright (in fact they are a good deal brighter than any lights i've had before) but not as bright as car headlights, and although there is no dimming facility on them i do generally turn one off when i see an owl but of course turning both off isn't really a good idea.

previous years its happened a few times so its not something new, but not nearly so often in a short space of time or in such spectacular manner as this year so i would guess the main cause of the difference is the lights, though i'm not sure if its actually any different now or whether its just that i can now see more. And to be honest i don't fancy going back to using the old less-bright lights because i am keen for motorists to see me at night (which is quite important), so i don't really know there is a lot i can do if they are causing a problem

just thought i'd bring it up anyway

,

Interesting points Karl

Firstly, let me agree with you totally about the time spent in almost "another world", a real privilige to be able to spend time in. It's one of those life experiences which is such an honour to just be able to very momentarily take part in.

I've always thought that if an Owls eyes are so sensitive, then do car headlights actually hurt them, but then if they just sit and watch as you pass, then maybe not as much as we had thought?

Then again, are they partially transfixed as are rabbits, or is that just a myth?

Perhaps the reason they do fly along with you is that they have sussed your speeds and routes etc, and are using you to flush any potential prey that may be disturbed by your lights. On your bycicle, you are obviously not going to make much noise in comparison to a car, so maybe your lights will just disturb, or momentarily distract a victim, just enough for one of the owls to take advantage of the situation.

Obviously I'm not a scientist, and have not given as some may think a very scientific answer to your points, but seeing as no-one else has answered up till now, I thought I'd give you a bit of support and add my two penneth in!

Hello Karl,
Before retiring I had the same experiences when cycling into work early during the winter months. Just as I passed security and along the cycle track a Barn Owl would fly from my left hand side and stay about 6ft ahead of the bike and in front of the beam. It would stay there for about 50 yards till I joined the road then fly off.
On my right hand side were grass verges and I am sure the owl was using the light to check if anything was in the grass.
It never flew in front in front of car headlights which only lit the road of course.
Others had seen this owl in front of my bike and as I passed security they would say to me here comes owl man.

Regards,
Chris

Those are quite remarkable observations. And I am very jealous - the Barn Owl is my favourite. I was surprised to read this week that Owls don't actually possess particularly remarkable eyesight - much better than ours, or course, but not so good that a little help doesn't go amiss.

BTW, could this be another cause of the high mortality of Barn Owls due to road traffic? Or is that too big a leap? And did you see this thread: http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=20971 I do realise this is barmy conjecture, but I do wonder what is going on here.

Graham

Agree: It's not uncommon to see Barn Owl 'frozen' on posts by side of roads at night, then attempt to stay within the beam - the last time I saw this was a few weeks back and it appeared it was the sense of danger from the oncoming slipstream that actually flushed the bird away finally rather than the light itself. That particular episode, nice views as it was, got me wondering too - one of the possibilities I thought, could be that Barn Owl (in particular?) have learned to associate fast moving lights with a freshly provided road kill and actually attempt to 'go with the vehicle' - rather like a competing predator species will attempt to steal a kill from another predator. So I'm wondering if what is going on here is a form of pre-emptive 'secondary' predation? They just haven't learnt that bikes don't kill prey species for them, only cars do. (last sentence just for you Karl )

(either that or they've all got mixamatosis )

edrick owl said:

Interesting points Karl
Perhaps the reason they do fly along with you is that they have sussed your speeds and routes etc, and are using you to flush any potential prey that may be disturbed by your lights. On your bycicle, you are obviously not going to make much noise in comparison to a car, so maybe your lights will just disturb, or momentarily distract a victim, just enough for one of the owls to take advantage of the situation.

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Hi Karl,

I think there's something in edrick's thoughts and that perhaps they are using you to flush out potential prey.

In the main an Owl's sight isn't good at all and they rely heavily on their hearing, therefore they don't display the same type of actions with cars etc as the noise from the motors stops them from being able to hear anything to alert them to where the prey is.

So why not pick on a cyclist to hopefully drive prey out and enable the Owls to hear it and be aware of exactly where to locate it. Keep an eye out for a catch one night Karl....it could easily happen IF this is the case!

Happy cycle viewing!

Sue.

Sue Wright said:

In the main an Owl's sight isn't good at all and they rely heavily on their hearing, therefore they don't display the same type of actions with cars etc as the noise from the motors stops them from being able to hear anything to alert them to where the prey is.

Sue.

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Thing is, I have seen them 'displaying same type of action with cars! - as I said above, it happened a few weeks ago. They also do it with trains incidently and are often casualties on railway lines. Perhaps car drivers don't notice them as much because they're concentrating on the driving. I've certainly seen Barn Owls (as a passenger) hawk main roads at night more than any other species of owl - unfortunately, they're often caught by the slipstream of passing motors and sucked in. I think perhaps the fact that the Barn Owl's sight isn't good, suggests they do use the lights of passing cars regardless of the noise but like other owls, don't need to rely on it in order to hunt prey at night, so there is possibly something else going on here, in addition to simply using the lights of a passing cyclist to spot prey. The interesting question for me is whether they've learnt to also associate passing lights with a potentially injured (and therefore easily caught) prey species and therefore, 'follow' them, as Karl has witnessed on his bike.

Hi Deborah,

Apologies, I failed to see that part of your reply! I see what you mean now though and can quite see the point you're making. I've never seen one doing as you describe (as yet) but have seen 2 dead on a stretch of road which is most definatley Barn Owl territory as we've often seen them flying over there in summer evenings, though never yet getting in the beam of our headlights, I hope we don't!

Sue.

Sue Wright said:

Hi Deborah,

Apologies, I failed to see that part of your reply! I see what you mean now though and can quite see the point you're making. I've never seen one doing as you describe (as yet) but have seen 2 dead on a stretch of road which is most definatley Barn Owl territory as we've often seen them flying over there in summer evenings, though never yet getting in the beam of our headlights, I hope we don't!

Sue.

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It's a terrible shame that Barn Owl are hawking roads at all. Mind you, have seen Kestrel following cars along a road too .... a sort of hover, follow a bit, then hover, then follow a bit ... albeit in broad daylight .. fortunately the times Ive seen BO's 'hawking' cars, they've still kept to the side of the road. Perhaps a lot of the road kills are when they've got caught in the slip stream from a passing car attempting to follow the light rather than flying directly into the beam of light - dunno, don't drive, often wish I did but this is one good reason for me not to! I do wander how many passing road kills we see are actually those that were themselves in process of eating prey that had been injured or killed by passing car - would we notice the much smaller mammal road kills from a speeding car?

I had a similar experience when driving along a country lane in Oxfordshire looking for a hotel.

The lane was pitch black and my car was the only source of light to be seen. I was driving fairly slowly, as I didn’t know where I was, when suddenly this Barn Owl swept in from the right. I assumed it would be startled and disappear quickly, but no, it flew in front of me for a few hundred yards, lit only by my headlights; a beautiful sight. It then suddenly swept away to the left. I stopped to look out for it, but it was nowhere to be seen.

I was talking about it for days afterwards!