"The only way to think creatively about a system is to assume it was destroyed last night-it no longer exists. If you don't know what you would do when you CAN do whatever you want, then how can you possibly know what to do when you CAN'T do whatever you want?" That was Dr. Russell Ackoff, attributing the quote to a "vice president of Bell Labs in the 50's." He called it "Idealized Design." Your workspace was destroyed last night. It's gone. You get a fresh start. What would you do? Use that mental framework to generate ideas for your current system.
If you like hummingbirds (or various other things), and you're ever in Southeast Arizona... give a visit to the Ash Canyon Bird Sanctuary... a labor of love that my mom built over a quarter century, now run by the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory (which in turn is run by some friends of my mom). A lovely spot to just sit and watch a wide variety of birds, with some special emphasis on various species of hummingbirds.
About 20 years ago my late wife and I were involved with a hummingbird banding project in Riverside Co., CA. We visited SE AZ in Jun 2004. We spent an afternoon near Bisbee with an acquaintance, Sheri Williamson, who wrote the Peterson hummingbird field guides. We visited Ramsay Canyon and also a B&B on Turkey Track Rd., very near the border. They were seeing, occasionally, an infrequent hummingbird species. For the life of me, I can't remember which species or if we saw it. We stayed a night or two at a place called Beatty's, south of Sierra Vista. There were a good number of hummingbirds. We were hoping to see a trogon, but we never did.
Hi Adam! Longtime fan. Your intellectual curiosity is infectious. One of the most delightful experiences of watching Mythbusters was seeing how much delight you gained from every investigation. Your knowledge and skills along with your fearless involvement with every project you tackle has been an endless source of encouragement. Now I find you are also enamored with birdwatching. Is there no end of your enlightenment I can’t want to emulate. Thank you for being a source of encouragement for so many years!
It's funny how appropriate the first segment was as I was just contemplating the basic issue of "getting things done." I've long made lists to keep me focused and on track throughout the day, but Adam's point about the magic wand and getting that "compass heading" gave me a new insight to my lists. Most of the time, my lists are a bunch of different tasks. Pay the bills, wash the sheets, finish up end-of-year accounting, etc. Too often I end up getting the tasks done, but it ends up feeling like treading water because I'm just (barely) keeping up with the rigors of daily life and not really moving forward most of the time. I need to take that step back, find that compass heading, and then make my list to achieve it. There will still be the mundane daily tasks on my list, but I need to start putting compass heading projects on my list to move forward.
Protip from a longtime birder: check out sewage treatment plants and landfills. No joke. (Make sure they allow visitors first.) The settling ponds attract a huge variety of waterfowl and shorebirds, especially during migration, and landfills are great places to spot gulls. Constructed wetlands, often adjacent to water/sewage treatment plants, are a fantastic innovation and way to support the local ecosystem. Also a fun day out for birders. (Identifying gulls to species and year is the work of a lifetime. Don't go down that rabbit hole unless you really REALLY want to.) Learning to understand the language of nature really is like learning to read again. Suddenly there's this vast new world you only were peripherally aware of before, and it's all around you, all the time. You'll go from birds to butterflies to moths to plants to frogs and even to landforms and clouds. The biota and biogeography of the Bay Area (or any area, really, but the Bay Area is both attractive and active) are great places to strengthen those skills.
Gulls drive me insane, as a casual bird fan. I go to the beach and see a mass of white and grey stretching for dozens of metres, and I'm somehow supposed to tell which of 12 nearly-identical species they are?
I own a dog, and I am constantly aware of the birds in my area. I have a bird song app (Merlin Bird I.D.) , which has been a great way to learn those tiny birds that you may hear, but not see ! People are driving, walking, jogging, on my street, but most are oblivious to the wildlife just steps away. We had a light snow the other day & I was delighted to see the rabbit tracks about. In the small field where I walk I have seen deer, rabbits, coyote, fox, and turkey vultures ! P.s. my dog is on leash and not allowed to harrass wildlife (or random free roaming cats!)
Absolutely! I was sitting on a park bench soon after sunset, and an owl flew from directly behind me to pounce on something in the field in front. It seemed as if it didn't even disturb the air as it passed within a few feet of my head, it was completely silent, not even a swish or whoosh. This was in a rural part of the west of Ireland in 1996, so there wasn't much ambient noise either. It really startled me, and then once I realised what I had seen, I was awestruck. One of the most memorable moments of my entire life.
You can find blue[prints for Barn Owl houses that are scientifically designed to be perfect for Barn Owls. You can attach them to the roof of your house and a Barn Owl is likely to find it and move in. They will help keep down the rodents in your property
Capturing a Hummingbird frozen in flight, was a great lesson in photo patience. I always loved the pelicans while I was stationed at Ft Ord, Monterey Ca. We visited the coast in September, and I finally got to capture them gracefully in flight. Also while stationed at Ft Ord, once I had a huge Barn owl swoop down at me, scaring this poor soldier boy senseless. I don't know which of us screeched louder, the barn owl or myself. but only one of us almost crapped their pants. That was one big silent hunter for sure. Love my papermate shapewriter. Best wishes for team Tested.
He brings up bird watching is for "people his age" and I suddenly remember how obsessed I have become at identifying the difference between crows and ravens because I could swear that these birds I see at work are a crossbreed between them.
One of my favorite clips so far. What a wonderful surprise about the bird watching story. My wife has recently been doing the exact same thing with Merlin. We can't go on a walk anywhere without her pulling it out and stopping to find all the birds in our area. It's not really my activity, but I do still love seeing how excited she gets about it, so I always go along. She'll be elated to hear that she shares this interest with you.
Bay Area native here, I love all of the different birds we get by our home. My husband and I are in our 40s and we have learned all of the birds in our area and get excited when a new one shows up at our feeders. I love owls, they're fascinating creatures
I lived in Santa Rosa in the late 80's, and we used to see and hear barn owls frequently on top of that as a former member of the CCC I spent alot of time working with CDF. The sheer amount of owls in the forests in California would amaze you!
I use this phrase at work all the time. It's a great way to communicate the north star goals to a team and to indicate what we would do if we had infinite resources and time
We have tons of barn owls up in Novato. They love palm trees. Look around the base of palm trees for pellets and feathers (white with tan and faint spots). They are usually pretty far up into the fronds, but sometimes you can see a portion of them and sometimes they are hanging out below the fronds.
Emptying the room out and doing it all over from scratch is about what I'm doing right now with my Craft space. There are a few things that I'm leaving in there just because the new design utilizes them but my design started with an empty box of a room. Another thing that I find useful is to go through everything and Purge things that you thought you were going to use but you never ended up using and you can't think of a reason to use it again, you clear out so much that is a distraction or is using a valuable space. I probably do this every 2 to 3 years.
An alternative to the magic wand that I found useful in making decisions is imagine you could flip a coin, where one side is one option and the other side is another option. What would you hope the coin lands on as it's falling?
"If I could wave my magic wand I'd set everybody free. I'm not one to believe in magic, Though my memory has a second-sight. I'm not one to go pointing my finger when I radiate more heat than light." ~ Neil Peart
they can recognize faces, treat them regularly and they will learn the way you walk, talk, and the car you drive. they may even gift you something in return! (look up crow gifts
I appreciate your enthusiasm for birding. A barn owl is definitely exciting. I've never seen one in the wild, though I've been into birds all my life -- sometimes more, sometimes less. I am a senior citizen now with five senior siblings -- all of whom are now into birding. It makes for some enjoyable reunions.
The rice fields up in Yuba City / Marysville have many opportunities for bird watching, especially waterfowl. At different times of the year there are thousands of birds flying in an out. Spectacular sight, especially early in the morning or late in the afternoon.
I do long road trips. I am often emptying car and the reloading to find so much more space after a few hundred miles in the previous arrangement. You have to inhabit a space to know how to change it. You have to empty a space to see what to change.
When changing a space around, it can be extremely useful to make a paper mock up of the space and all the main parts that fill the space. The in your head, you can empty the room, and think about where everything fits back. Before moving anything.
I've loved Merlin ever since my cousin got me into it earlier this year. I use it when I'm in my yard, I use it when I'm out in the forest, at customers' houses, walking down a quieter part of a road... And I always download the local bird packs when I travel! Lately I've gotten pretty good at recognising the golden crowned sparrow calls (two to four whistles, dropping in pitch). They seem to be pretty abundant this time of year
Hey Honey, I am going to watch Adam Savage now. Why are you going to watch Adam Savage now, I thought you had work to do? Well I want to go down a rabbit hole and see where it ends lol.
NotJeff here. We're down on the Peninsula from Adam, and the Barn Owls are here in the suburbs and the Great Horned Owls are up in the hills. You can hear Barn Owls and their unearthly screeching on many nights. They are associated with palm trees, they like to roost in them. Apparently they like to feed on rats. In our neighborhood we get a glimpse of them flying around in the moonlight, ghostly silent until they screech and clatter their beaks. Birding is a great skill to learn. It teaches you to be patient, to pay attention to detail, to sharpen your senses, to look for patterns, and other soft skills that prove useful every day. When you get to know the birds that surround you every day, you become part of a greater neighborhood and you're always in the community of winged friends.
Old Sears catalogs are neat. Our questioner is probably thinking like 1980s, but the super old ones are really cool. I mean super old ones. Okay, so, several years ago I helped my father clear out my paternal grandmother's house after she passed, and we found an old clock in a far corner of the basement, clearly forgotten. It didn't work. A few years later I got it in my head that I should have the clock restored. It just so happened that at a previous job I worked with a guy who was a night janitor but his day job was as a horologist, a clockmaker. With my mom's help, I snuck the clock out and took it to his shop, and asked him to fix it. And while we were talking about it, I mentioned that we had no actual idea where the clock came from or what its deal was. So the guy walks me over to one of his shelves and pulls a 1904 Sears Roebuck and Co catalog and flips through it and there it is, plain as day.
I can verify the silence of owls. I have encountered them only a few times, but each time what struck me was how quietly they sailed by - never really very far above my head, so if there was a sound, I would surely have heard it. It's kind of an eerie experience, and rare enough to feel special, particularly here in the city.
Your mention of "the mission" (district) triggered a memory of when I lived in T.I. military housing in the late 80s. My wife and I were in the BX when the Loma Prieta hit - had to ride a Navy tug to Alameda daily until they fixed the bridge. I also witnessed the Oakland Hills Firestorm from the island. The smoke rose and arced over the bay toward SF, partially blocking the sun. That's what drew my attention. Today, while listening to this video, I opened Google Maps and browsed satellite imagery of T.I. My eyes wandered to Angel Island. In that view, at the northern edge of the Nike Missile base, the satellite camera caught a Blackhawk helicopter, mid-flight. Rabbit holes, indeed. Also, yes; birds. They vary a great deal from one end of our country to the other. Until I was well into adulthood and travelled extensively, I did not know that we had Magpies or Towhees. I didn't know a Bunting from a Bluebird. There is a lot to learn and see, if only we have/take the time to look.
if you're up for a trip with mrs don't-try-this sometime, there's a large birds of prey refuge in idaho you'd probably both really enjoy. you'll even get a chance to see a condor. i lived not too terribly far from there as a kid, but have opted for more wide open spaces for peace, quiet, & affordable living than that state can claim - we get rather larger beasts here, many with hooves & horns.
My awesome Owl moment came during a routine weekly food shopping trip to the local supermarket which involved a drive along a tree lined road which, at points, becomes a tree tunnel. It was dusk and as we were driving along with the lights of the car illuminating the road ahead, a Barn Owl swooped in to the tree tunnel from our right, flew along in front of the car for a few seconds and then swerved to the left, exiting the tree tunnel through a gap in the branches. It was an enchanting sight and one that only lasted a few seconds but will stay with me for ever 😌
Love the bird watching hobby! I always remember a bird show I attended. I was in a crowd of people, spectators, and a person is holding a Japanese Owl, Eurasian Eagle Owl (Bubo Bubo). It's the biggest owl in the world. The face of the bird is a away from me, like 180 degrees lookig the other way. The crowd is silent, and I make a noice with my mouth, a snirping sound that I always do to let cats look up. The owl turns his head around and looks directly at ME, out of all the people. It knew of course EXACTLY where the sound come from.
My wife and I were chasing down birds and thinking about how we could collect more in our Merlin app. Suddenly I asked her, "did we become birders?" Apparently, we had. The little devils just work their way into your heart.
The music industry is somewhere that growing up I was told "there is no money in music", and looking around I realized I was lied to, there always has been a massive maker culture surrounding sound.
This morning, I was gardening before it became too hot. There were Black Cockatoos, Magpies, Kookaburras, Eastern Spinebills, Gang-gangs, Blue Wrens, Rainbow Lorikeets, and Yellow-rumped Thornbills. The White Cockatoos must have business elsewhere for the morning, though. I keep an eye out for other wildlife too such as Wolf Spiders, Damselflies, and Skinks. This place is alive with those lizards! At night, I'll sometimes hear the Southern Boobook Owl and the Tawny Frogmouth. Last year, I heard a Powerful Owl over several nights but haven't heard it since. This area isn't quite right for them - too many houses.
It's funny, I listen to Adam talk about things and give suggestions, and some of them are things I've sort of instinctively done for years without realizing how good they actually are. The "If I could wave a magic wand" thing is a great example. I've always looked at problem solving from "well, in a perfect world..." because I sort of believe that world is possible if only you have the time and energy. My father, on the other hand, always dismisses the "perfect" solution because it would be too hard or take too long and instead he builds a half-functional stopgap that becomes a permanent solution for longer than the perfect build would have taken lol. Imagining the impossibly perfect version of a thing is super useful and I think more people need to know that. "Perfect" is the enemy of "good," but ""Imposible" just leads to regret.
I suggest you look at the Port of Stockton's website. They have several active barn owl boxes with live webcams. Barn owls make the screech, but they also make a clicking sound that I can only call "twittering." I live in Anza, CA. It's 40 miles southwest of Palm Desert, if you know where that is. But we're much higher, and our winters are much colder. We're at elev. ~4,000 ft. Arid vegetation: scrub oaks, Mojave yuccas, redshanks. We have barn owls. I've had two nest boxes since May 2024. We've had no rain, which is said to be a trigger for breeding. But they visit the boxes regularly, and there's a resident owl right now in one of my boxes.
That question about how to repurpose a space may have been vague, but I thought it was a good and interesting questions. I also enjoyed watching you geek out over birdwatching. Not my thing but our youngest daughter has gotten into it.
Just start working and see where stuff lands. If stuff starts being used in the same places or is left in the same places, then make those places its home. Do that enough and groups or piles of stuff will start to form which will need organizing for efficiency. Don't let analysis paralysis take hold.
My wife, our oldest daughter, and I were vacationing in CA in 2013. One night, we were driving in some mountains south of San Francisco. I don’t remember what the conversation was, but I said, “you know, I’ve never seen an owl in the wild.” The next second, an owl, flying directly at our car, almost hit the windshield. It was the damnedest thing! Of course the next thing out of my mouth was, “you know, I’ve never seen a million dollars in the wild!”
I would recommend a drive through the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge if you are nearby. Make sure you can spend at least an hour and have binoculars. Your car is your blind.
Well Broad wing hawks aren't owls and may not have stealth via silent feathers but man oh man do they have stealth. They have great camo and they "fall" off a branch (way quieter than "taking off" via flapping) to attack. I had an aggressive one that kept dive bombing my family. I heard its screech so I ran out to try to scare it off. I was looking into the canopy but couldn't see it... Suddenly, and holy shit .... The best way to describe it was that it was like a Klingon ship "decloaking" (amazingly a Klingon ship is called a "Bird of prey"). This bird seemed to just materialize out of thin air, right in front of me, as it was swooping in to attack me. I let out the most ape-like guttural uncontrolled yell - something I have never heard before or since emanate from my body . I truly felt like an unthinking animal being predated, and I experienced the raw primal fear of a raptor having you in its sights. Horrifying and worthy of awe and appreciation all at the same time
My parents and grandpa bird-watch. Take a camera and take pictures is my suggestion. Photography is another great hobby that can be a lot of fun and has overlap with lots of things.
I saw a young screech owl up close recently. There was a torrential downpour going on, and I was out on the porch smoking a bowl with a friend. The little guy was huddled on a branch under the eaves, waterlogged and looking completely miserable. He was there the next day too, but then the rain let up and he disappeared.
I know something that Might make a good project. You can find blue[prints for Barn Owl houses that are scientifically designed to be perfect for Barn Owls. You can attach them to the roof of your house and a Barn Owl is likely to find it and move in. They will help keep down the rodents in your property
My husband and I live out in the East Bay and we have both barn owls and great horned owls living in our neighborhood. I'm annoyed with the great horned because one of them in particular loves to hang out after dark right in front of our house...directly on top of the streetlight, so it's impossible to get a picture of the darn thing. The barn owls seem to have made a game of waiting for us to take the trash bins out and then do that creepy shriek while flying directly over us. Scared the bejeezus out of me the first time!
I can hear whip-poor-wills in my live oak trees quite often here in South Florida (don't need a fancy app to recognize them :-), but I've never been able to spot one. Then I looked them up in google images and understood why I probably never would see one - their plumage looks exactly like oak bark. They are just gonna be a bump on the tree.
Just wanted to say, watching the Fabio Goose bit was delightful, seeing Adam use exactly the right tools (including a lube I'd never heard of) to exactly get the mph desired on the first try was like when Isaac Newton came out of retirement to solve the brachistochrone problem in a day.
Ahh, I should go back and watch a livestream clip where Adam talks about 'small shop spaces' cuz my first thought was "If I had a magic wand, I'd knock out this wall!" and I'm a renter XD No way to get more square footage! And I know Adam loves to talk about the z-axis, aka building UP, but I've ALREADY got like 3/4ths of the walls covered in shelving units, and if I add any MORE, I won't be able to WALK in between them! Sigh. Townhouse problems.
I have spotted a barn owl nest in the Inner Richmond, let me know if you want to know where. I was completely dumbfounded when Merlin ID'd the sound I heard.
...couldn't stop myself. ... 4:26 Adam: "birdwatching" , instantaneous, birdwatching but loud me: "I LOVE YOU"... The wife, louder, from the other side of the workshop: "EXCUSE ME?" Birdwatchers from all over the world, unite! but hush, there's an eurasian treecreeper juuust there in the garden, look, oh he's magnificent... 😁
I moved to an apartment in Ohio just outside of a small town for two years. I worked 2nd shift at the time and there were some nights after I gotten home from work I heard an owl hooting somewhere around the apartment. Then one night I had just gotten home from work I walk around to the back door I heard the owl hooting and I stopped a looked up to a nearby tree and seen the outline of the owl against the night sky before it seen me and flew off.
I think you'll find that barn owls are more common there than you thought. I'm in San Diego and they're quite common here, often living in the palm trees. They really are very flexible. Adding to the confusion is the fact that barn owls screech. It really does sound like a scream. And screech owls don't screech, they whinny.
I wish I could book an hour with Adam to get life advice. I feel like it could help more than my therapist. Is it hard as a patreon to get one's question answered on the livestream?
I tried one of those bird ID apps - it seemed to have two delusions it keep presenting to me - 1) that every unknown bird song is an american robin 2) american robins are rare in my area - both statements I know to be demonstrably untrue 🙂 Gonna try the Merlin one based on your usage story and hope it works better
I so want to see Adam train a raven to say "never more." ^-^ P.S. i know this would be difficult, but ravens are pretty smart for birds. Maybe even genius level (for a bird), as they are known tool users.
I have 2 owl stories. The first, it was during the covid lockdowns in the UK, I was sat in the grave yard behind my local church around sunset (playing Pokemon Go xD it was a good spot). I was sat on a bench and I just happened to look up as this large brown bird shot across my vision from left to right, completely silent, would have never know it was there if I hadn't happened to have looked up from my phone at that moment. I can't help the feeling there is a message in there somewhere to unpack. The other is in my back garden behind the house there is a tall brick wall forming a courtyard, behind that is a grass path that was still part of our property and against the boundry fence to a wooded pond area there was the small ball of fluff. As I got closer to it I realised that it was a young owl half asleep. Clearly it had been trying to learn to fly and hadn't been able to get back home and had fallen asleep where it felt safe against the overgrown fencing. Both of these sightings were within a few hundred meters of each other so I would imagine both owls were related and the baby owl I am fairly sure was a Tawny Owl.
2:37 "If I could wave my magic wand I'd make everything all right I'm not one to believe in magic But I sometimes have a second-sight I'm not one with a sense of proportion When my heart still changes overnight" ~Peart
around 2018 i was out on a bike ride. It gets to dusk im going down this long straight road through fields and just in my periphery vision i see something moving. Looking at it i see that its a snowy owl and its fling about 5 meters from me next to me at about 2 half meters form the ground. This owl continues to fly with me riding my bike we look at each other a few times. was just amazing. a car comes into few with bright headlights the owl flies away, i was a little sad.
Are systems of thinking, frameworks, these mental gymnastics, are these "science"? It feels important and as someone who focuses my study and creativity on play and gaming, I personally feel is important but it feels commonly in the realm of unscientific but I'd love for that conception to change.
Hey Adam, my dad works on the tech for the Merlin app and other field observation projects from the Cornell ornithology folks. Could make a connection if you’re interested in doing a video on their work. They deal with really interesting tech and engineering problems trying to make sound recording boxes robust enough to survive months unattended in remote jungles etc.
Adam, you should check out two recent books by local Bay Area writer Jack Gedney on local avians: "The Private Lives of Public Birds" and "The Birds In The Oaks." He is a truly great writer.
If I had a magic wand, I would go back in time to take that gig, seek justice in a certain situation, spend time with friends, do my homework and tell people that I love them.
Add me to the list of those who've had the wits scared out of them by an owl swooping overhead. 3am, so quiet it sounded like the whole world was asleep, and I'm walking along quietly. My footsteps are the only sound in the deafening silence of the night. Suddenly a large object appeared over my head moving quickly. He came from behind and passed completely silently about 8-10 feet overhead. I nearly had a heart attack and hit the deck! The owl passsd over and flew up into a perch about 100 feet away and looked down at me. I swear he was laughing!! 😂
Yes, those Merlin app “false positives” aren’t false as much as you might think. We’ve been very surprised several times over the last few years here in Florida, finally seeing that bird that we were sure wasn’t in our area. 👍🏻
If I could wave a magic wand, I’d go back to when my wife and I were looking for our first place to live together, I’d want an extra bedroom for a separate project space… and in-unit laundry.
Owls are the stealth bomber of the bird world. I've been scared out of my wits by owls swooping to take a look at me when i was in the woods at night. Because you can't hear them. It's just suddenly there is a large bird very close to me, and i didn't see or hear it coming. The owls were just being curious, but it's a jump scare when it happens.
Completely unrelated, but if I could wave a magic wand. I'd wear hearing protection as a kid. Ya'll, tinnitus is the worst. Get hearing protection. :3
The cicadas no one else can hear 😢
And a mask
As bad as tinnitus is, breathing problems are even worse (in my experience, ymmv)
Or worse, both. Being young and dumb leads to all sorts of fun maladies as one ages.
@@FUBARguy107 Accurate. Too accurate.
... and remind that punk that tinnitus can continue to get worse, so STOP! NOW!
As a big fan of owls both watching them and photographing them it warms my heart to hear you speak fondly of them. Keep on being awesome maker man!
"The only way to think creatively about a system is to assume it was destroyed last night-it no longer exists. If you don't know what you would do when you CAN do whatever you want, then how can you possibly know what to do when you CAN'T do whatever you want?"
That was Dr. Russell Ackoff, attributing the quote to a "vice president of Bell Labs in the 50's." He called it "Idealized Design."
Your workspace was destroyed last night. It's gone. You get a fresh start. What would you do? Use that mental framework to generate ideas for your current system.
If you like hummingbirds (or various other things), and you're ever in Southeast Arizona... give a visit to the Ash Canyon Bird Sanctuary... a labor of love that my mom built over a quarter century, now run by the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory (which in turn is run by some friends of my mom). A lovely spot to just sit and watch a wide variety of birds, with some special emphasis on various species of hummingbirds.
About 20 years ago my late wife and I were involved with a hummingbird banding project in Riverside Co., CA. We visited SE AZ in Jun 2004. We spent an afternoon near Bisbee with an acquaintance, Sheri Williamson, who wrote the Peterson hummingbird field guides. We visited Ramsay Canyon and also a B&B on Turkey Track Rd., very near the border. They were seeing, occasionally, an infrequent hummingbird species. For the life of me, I can't remember which species or if we saw it. We stayed a night or two at a place called Beatty's, south of Sierra Vista. There were a good number of hummingbirds. We were hoping to see a trogon, but we never did.
Hi Adam! Longtime fan. Your intellectual curiosity is infectious. One of the most delightful experiences of watching Mythbusters was seeing how much delight you gained from every investigation. Your knowledge and skills along with your fearless involvement with every project you tackle has been an endless source of encouragement. Now I find you are also enamored with birdwatching. Is there no end of your enlightenment I can’t want to emulate. Thank you for being a source of encouragement for so many years!
It's funny how appropriate the first segment was as I was just contemplating the basic issue of "getting things done." I've long made lists to keep me focused and on track throughout the day, but Adam's point about the magic wand and getting that "compass heading" gave me a new insight to my lists. Most of the time, my lists are a bunch of different tasks. Pay the bills, wash the sheets, finish up end-of-year accounting, etc. Too often I end up getting the tasks done, but it ends up feeling like treading water because I'm just (barely) keeping up with the rigors of daily life and not really moving forward most of the time. I need to take that step back, find that compass heading, and then make my list to achieve it. There will still be the mundane daily tasks on my list, but I need to start putting compass heading projects on my list to move forward.
Protip from a longtime birder: check out sewage treatment plants and landfills. No joke. (Make sure they allow visitors first.) The settling ponds attract a huge variety of waterfowl and shorebirds, especially during migration, and landfills are great places to spot gulls.
Constructed wetlands, often adjacent to water/sewage treatment plants, are a fantastic innovation and way to support the local ecosystem. Also a fun day out for birders.
(Identifying gulls to species and year is the work of a lifetime. Don't go down that rabbit hole unless you really REALLY want to.)
Learning to understand the language of nature really is like learning to read again. Suddenly there's this vast new world you only were peripherally aware of before, and it's all around you, all the time. You'll go from birds to butterflies to moths to plants to frogs and even to landforms and clouds. The biota and biogeography of the Bay Area (or any area, really, but the Bay Area is both attractive and active) are great places to strengthen those skills.
Gulls drive me insane, as a casual bird fan. I go to the beach and see a mass of white and grey stretching for dozens of metres, and I'm somehow supposed to tell which of 12 nearly-identical species they are?
I own a dog, and I am constantly aware of the birds in my area.
I have a bird song app (Merlin Bird I.D.) , which has been a great way to learn those tiny birds that you may hear, but not see !
People are driving, walking, jogging, on my street, but most are oblivious to the wildlife just steps away.
We had a light snow the other day & I was delighted to see the rabbit tracks about.
In the small field where I walk I have seen deer, rabbits, coyote, fox, and turkey vultures !
P.s. my dog is on leash and not allowed to harrass wildlife (or random free roaming cats!)
Just came back here to say, I hadn't heard Adam talk about the Merlin app before writing the above comment! 😅
Barn Owls are the stealthbombers of the avian world. Had one in my back yard in CT. It was massive and dead ass silent. Massive wing span.
Absolutely! I was sitting on a park bench soon after sunset, and an owl flew from directly behind me to pounce on something in the field in front. It seemed as if it didn't even disturb the air as it passed within a few feet of my head, it was completely silent, not even a swish or whoosh. This was in a rural part of the west of Ireland in 1996, so there wasn't much ambient noise either. It really startled me, and then once I realised what I had seen, I was awestruck. One of the most memorable moments of my entire life.
The base designs on stealth bombers and fighters on the form hawks take during divebombing prey.
You can find blue[prints for Barn Owl houses that are scientifically designed to be perfect for Barn Owls.
You can attach them to the roof of your house and a Barn Owl is likely to find it and move in.
They will help keep down the rodents in your property
Capturing a Hummingbird frozen in flight, was a great lesson in photo patience. I always loved the pelicans while I was stationed at Ft Ord, Monterey Ca. We visited the coast in September, and I finally got to capture them gracefully in flight. Also while stationed at Ft Ord, once I had a huge Barn owl swoop down at me, scaring this poor soldier boy senseless. I don't know which of us screeched louder, the barn owl or myself. but only one of us almost crapped their pants. That was one big silent hunter for sure. Love my papermate shapewriter.
Best wishes for team Tested.
Four-door Ford in Fort Ord
Say that five times fast
If I could wave a magic wand, I would be as excited about EVERYTHING as Adam Savage!
I love that Merlin bird identification app. I wasn’t a bird watcher but now I find much more pleasure in listening to the multitude of birds nearby.
He brings up bird watching is for "people his age" and I suddenly remember how obsessed I have become at identifying the difference between crows and ravens because I could swear that these birds I see at work are a crossbreed between them.
One of my favorite clips so far. What a wonderful surprise about the bird watching story. My wife has recently been doing the exact same thing with Merlin. We can't go on a walk anywhere without her pulling it out and stopping to find all the birds in our area. It's not really my activity, but I do still love seeing how excited she gets about it, so I always go along. She'll be elated to hear that she shares this interest with you.
Bay Area native here, I love all of the different birds we get by our home. My husband and I are in our 40s and we have learned all of the birds in our area and get excited when a new one shows up at our feeders. I love owls, they're fascinating creatures
I used the Merlin app to identify a flock of birds on the beach that I’d never seen before. It’s definitely cool to have that ability in your pocket.
I've used it's audio identification and didn't realize how loud Humming Birds calls were!
I lived in Santa Rosa in the late 80's, and we used to see and hear barn owls frequently on top of that as a former member of the CCC I spent alot of time working with CDF. The sheer amount of owls in the forests in California would amaze you!
We have a lot of ravens here... I want to train them to talk so they fly through the neighborhood saying, "The end is nigh!"
"Nevermore" might be easier
I use this phrase at work all the time. It's a great way to communicate the north star goals to a team and to indicate what we would do if we had infinite resources and time
We have tons of barn owls up in Novato. They love palm trees. Look around the base of palm trees for pellets and feathers (white with tan and faint spots). They are usually pretty far up into the fronds, but sometimes you can see a portion of them and sometimes they are hanging out below the fronds.
Emptying the room out and doing it all over from scratch is about what I'm doing right now with my Craft space. There are a few things that I'm leaving in there just because the new design utilizes them but my design started with an empty box of a room. Another thing that I find useful is to go through everything and Purge things that you thought you were going to use but you never ended up using and you can't think of a reason to use it again, you clear out so much that is a distraction or is using a valuable space. I probably do this every 2 to 3 years.
An alternative to the magic wand that I found useful in making decisions is imagine you could flip a coin, where one side is one option and the other side is another option. What would you hope the coin lands on as it's falling?
I think Adam actually did an episode on this.
6:13 I love the fact that the sound of a screech owl causes you and your partner to start plowing in the woods
"If I could wave my magic wand I'd set everybody free.
I'm not one to believe in magic, Though my memory has a second-sight.
I'm not one to go pointing my finger when I radiate more heat than light."
~ Neil Peart
I have been trying to befriend the crows in my yard. But my neighbors make it difficult. I think they are smart enough to have trust issues.
they can recognize faces, treat them regularly and they will learn the way you walk, talk, and the car you drive. they may even gift you something in return! (look up crow gifts
everytime you go out to feed them, ring a small bell...
My wife and I were privileged to see and film a hummingbird moth. Most magical day ever!
I appreciate your enthusiasm for birding. A barn owl is definitely exciting. I've never seen one in the wild, though I've been into birds all my life -- sometimes more, sometimes less. I am a senior citizen now with five senior siblings -- all of whom are now into birding. It makes for some enjoyable reunions.
The rice fields up in Yuba City / Marysville have many opportunities for bird watching, especially waterfowl. At different times of the year there are thousands of birds flying in an out. Spectacular sight, especially early in the morning or late in the afternoon.
I do long road trips. I am often emptying car and the reloading to find so much more space after a few hundred miles in the previous arrangement.
You have to inhabit a space to know how to change it. You have to empty a space to see what to change.
When changing a space around, it can be extremely useful to make a paper mock up of the space and all the main parts that fill the space. The in your head, you can empty the room, and think about where everything fits back. Before moving anything.
I've loved Merlin ever since my cousin got me into it earlier this year. I use it when I'm in my yard, I use it when I'm out in the forest, at customers' houses, walking down a quieter part of a road... And I always download the local bird packs when I travel!
Lately I've gotten pretty good at recognising the golden crowned sparrow calls (two to four whistles, dropping in pitch). They seem to be pretty abundant this time of year
When I was a kid I always cleaned my room that way. There were two piles one to keep and junk, then it was much easier to reorganize. 😊
Hey Honey, I am going to watch Adam Savage now. Why are you going to watch Adam Savage now, I thought you had work to do? Well I want to go down a rabbit hole and see where it ends lol.
NotJeff here. We're down on the Peninsula from Adam, and the Barn Owls are here in the suburbs and the Great Horned Owls are up in the hills. You can hear Barn Owls and their unearthly screeching on many nights. They are associated with palm trees, they like to roost in them. Apparently they like to feed on rats. In our neighborhood we get a glimpse of them flying around in the moonlight, ghostly silent until they screech and clatter their beaks.
Birding is a great skill to learn. It teaches you to be patient, to pay attention to detail, to sharpen your senses, to look for patterns, and other soft skills that prove useful every day. When you get to know the birds that surround you every day, you become part of a greater neighborhood and you're always in the community of winged friends.
Old Sears catalogs are neat. Our questioner is probably thinking like 1980s, but the super old ones are really cool. I mean super old ones.
Okay, so, several years ago I helped my father clear out my paternal grandmother's house after she passed, and we found an old clock in a far corner of the basement, clearly forgotten. It didn't work. A few years later I got it in my head that I should have the clock restored. It just so happened that at a previous job I worked with a guy who was a night janitor but his day job was as a horologist, a clockmaker. With my mom's help, I snuck the clock out and took it to his shop, and asked him to fix it. And while we were talking about it, I mentioned that we had no actual idea where the clock came from or what its deal was. So the guy walks me over to one of his shelves and pulls a 1904 Sears Roebuck and Co catalog and flips through it and there it is, plain as day.
I love old mail-order catalogs. I also love the reprints of the very old versions.
A rifle for $10, a old cooking range for $30.
We have an owl that lives in our yard sometimes. He moves around. It is fantastic to watch.
I can verify the silence of owls. I have encountered them only a few times, but each time what struck me was how quietly they sailed by - never really very far above my head, so if there was a sound, I would surely have heard it. It's kind of an eerie experience, and rare enough to feel special, particularly here in the city.
Your mention of "the mission" (district) triggered a memory of when I lived in T.I. military housing in the late 80s. My wife and I were in the BX when the Loma Prieta hit - had to ride a Navy tug to Alameda daily until they fixed the bridge. I also witnessed the Oakland Hills Firestorm from the island. The smoke rose and arced over the bay toward SF, partially blocking the sun. That's what drew my attention. Today, while listening to this video, I opened Google Maps and browsed satellite imagery of T.I. My eyes wandered to Angel Island. In that view, at the northern edge of the Nike Missile base, the satellite camera caught a Blackhawk helicopter, mid-flight. Rabbit holes, indeed. Also, yes; birds. They vary a great deal from one end of our country to the other. Until I was well into adulthood and travelled extensively, I did not know that we had Magpies or Towhees. I didn't know a Bunting from a Bluebird. There is a lot to learn and see, if only we have/take the time to look.
I see a Blackhawk there too! Well camouflaged until you zoom right in. I cannot see its shadow though, so I wonder at what altitude it was flying.
if you're up for a trip with mrs don't-try-this sometime, there's a large birds of prey refuge in idaho you'd probably both really enjoy. you'll even get a chance to see a condor. i lived not too terribly far from there as a kid, but have opted for more wide open spaces for peace, quiet, & affordable living than that state can claim - we get rather larger beasts here, many with hooves & horns.
My awesome Owl moment came during a routine weekly food shopping trip to the local supermarket which involved a drive along a tree lined road which, at points, becomes a tree tunnel. It was dusk and as we were driving along with the lights of the car illuminating the road ahead, a Barn Owl swooped in to the tree tunnel from our right, flew along in front of the car for a few seconds and then swerved to the left, exiting the tree tunnel through a gap in the branches. It was an enchanting sight and one that only lasted a few seconds but will stay with me for ever 😌
Love the bird watching hobby!
I always remember a bird show I attended. I was in a crowd of people, spectators, and a person is holding a Japanese Owl, Eurasian Eagle Owl (Bubo Bubo). It's the biggest owl in the world. The face of the bird is a away from me, like 180 degrees lookig the other way. The crowd is silent, and I make a noice with my mouth, a snirping sound that I always do to let cats look up. The owl turns his head around and looks directly at ME, out of all the people. It knew of course EXACTLY where the sound come from.
My wife and I were chasing down birds and thinking about how we could collect more in our Merlin app. Suddenly I asked her, "did we become birders?" Apparently, we had. The little devils just work their way into your heart.
The music industry is somewhere that growing up I was told "there is no money in music", and looking around I realized I was lied to, there always has been a massive maker culture surrounding sound.
This morning, I was gardening before it became too hot. There were Black Cockatoos, Magpies, Kookaburras, Eastern Spinebills, Gang-gangs, Blue Wrens, Rainbow Lorikeets, and Yellow-rumped Thornbills. The White Cockatoos must have business elsewhere for the morning, though. I keep an eye out for other wildlife too such as Wolf Spiders, Damselflies, and Skinks. This place is alive with those lizards!
At night, I'll sometimes hear the Southern Boobook Owl and the Tawny Frogmouth. Last year, I heard a Powerful Owl over several nights but haven't heard it since. This area isn't quite right for them - too many houses.
Love the Merlin Bird App! Birding has really enhanced my joy in life. That is so cool that you have a resident barn owl! 🦉
It's funny, I listen to Adam talk about things and give suggestions, and some of them are things I've sort of instinctively done for years without realizing how good they actually are.
The "If I could wave a magic wand" thing is a great example. I've always looked at problem solving from "well, in a perfect world..." because I sort of believe that world is possible if only you have the time and energy. My father, on the other hand, always dismisses the "perfect" solution because it would be too hard or take too long and instead he builds a half-functional stopgap that becomes a permanent solution for longer than the perfect build would have taken lol.
Imagining the impossibly perfect version of a thing is super useful and I think more people need to know that. "Perfect" is the enemy of "good," but ""Imposible" just leads to regret.
I suggest you look at the Port of Stockton's website. They have several active barn owl boxes with live webcams. Barn owls make the screech, but they also make a clicking sound that I can only call "twittering." I live in Anza, CA. It's 40 miles southwest of Palm Desert, if you know where that is. But we're much higher, and our winters are much colder. We're at elev. ~4,000 ft. Arid vegetation: scrub oaks, Mojave yuccas, redshanks. We have barn owls. I've had two nest boxes since May 2024. We've had no rain, which is said to be a trigger for breeding. But they visit the boxes regularly, and there's a resident owl right now in one of my boxes.
The magic wand approach works great for clients in consulting and process reengineering
That question about how to repurpose a space may have been vague, but I thought it was a good and interesting questions. I also enjoyed watching you geek out over birdwatching. Not my thing but our youngest daughter has gotten into it.
Try giving the ravens a treat! They will love you overtime and probably bring you gifts!
Just start working and see where stuff lands. If stuff starts being used in the same places or is left in the same places, then make those places its home. Do that enough and groups or piles of stuff will start to form which will need organizing for efficiency. Don't let analysis paralysis take hold.
My wife, our oldest daughter, and I were vacationing in CA in 2013.
One night, we were driving in some mountains south of San Francisco. I don’t remember what the conversation was, but I said, “you know, I’ve never seen an owl in the wild.”
The next second, an owl, flying directly at our car, almost hit the windshield. It was the damnedest thing!
Of course the next thing out of my mouth was, “you know, I’ve never seen a million dollars in the wild!”
I would recommend a drive through the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge if you are nearby. Make sure you can spend at least an hour and have binoculars. Your car is your blind.
Well Broad wing hawks aren't owls and may not have stealth via silent feathers but man oh man do they have stealth. They have great camo and they "fall" off a branch (way quieter than "taking off" via flapping) to attack. I had an aggressive one that kept dive bombing my family. I heard its screech so I ran out to try to scare it off. I was looking into the canopy but couldn't see it...
Suddenly, and holy shit .... The best way to describe it was that it was like a Klingon ship "decloaking" (amazingly a Klingon ship is called a "Bird of prey"). This bird seemed to just materialize out of thin air, right in front of me, as it was swooping in to attack me. I let out the most ape-like guttural uncontrolled yell - something I have never heard before or since emanate from my body . I truly felt like an unthinking animal being predated, and I experienced the raw primal fear of a raptor having you in its sights. Horrifying and worthy of awe and appreciation all at the same time
My parents and grandpa bird-watch. Take a camera and take pictures is my suggestion. Photography is another great hobby that can be a lot of fun and has overlap with lots of things.
I saw a young screech owl up close recently. There was a torrential downpour going on, and I was out on the porch smoking a bowl with a friend. The little guy was huddled on a branch under the eaves, waterlogged and looking completely miserable. He was there the next day too, but then the rain let up and he disappeared.
6:29 Oh Adam ,it was Brad Dourif with the Owl 🦉 like eyebrows who played the mentat. Charles Durning played the Baron Harkonen...in Dune
Kenneth McMillan played the Baron. Durning was not in the film. And I assume Adam was thinking of Freddie Jones as Thufir Hawat.
I know something that Might make a good project.
You can find blue[prints for Barn Owl houses that are scientifically designed to be perfect for Barn Owls.
You can attach them to the roof of your house and a Barn Owl is likely to find it and move in.
They will help keep down the rodents in your property
My husband and I live out in the East Bay and we have both barn owls and great horned owls living in our neighborhood. I'm annoyed with the great horned because one of them in particular loves to hang out after dark right in front of our house...directly on top of the streetlight, so it's impossible to get a picture of the darn thing. The barn owls seem to have made a game of waiting for us to take the trash bins out and then do that creepy shriek while flying directly over us. Scared the bejeezus out of me the first time!
Great work sir 😊❤
I can hear whip-poor-wills in my live oak trees quite often here in South Florida (don't need a fancy app to recognize them :-), but I've never been able to spot one. Then I looked them up in google images and understood why I probably never would see one - their plumage looks exactly like oak bark. They are just gonna be a bump on the tree.
Just wanted to say, watching the Fabio Goose bit was delightful, seeing Adam use exactly the right tools (including a lube I'd never heard of) to exactly get the mph desired on the first try was like when Isaac Newton came out of retirement to solve the brachistochrone problem in a day.
The Merlin Bird app is amazing. I have had a blast with it around my area in Boston
2:09 "Fortune favors the prepared mind", as the stoics say
Ahh, I should go back and watch a livestream clip where Adam talks about 'small shop spaces' cuz my first thought was "If I had a magic wand, I'd knock out this wall!" and I'm a renter XD No way to get more square footage!
And I know Adam loves to talk about the z-axis, aka building UP, but I've ALREADY got like 3/4ths of the walls covered in shelving units, and if I add any MORE, I won't be able to WALK in between them! Sigh. Townhouse problems.
My wife and I camped in Brown County State Park in Indiana during the summer of 2024. There were many owls yowling and squawking overnight. Crazy
I have spotted a barn owl nest in the Inner Richmond, let me know if you want to know where. I was completely dumbfounded when Merlin ID'd the sound I heard.
Adam can you please explain the differences in thermal paste / grease and pads . What would they Excel in and not excel in ?
...couldn't stop myself. ... 4:26 Adam: "birdwatching" , instantaneous, birdwatching but loud me: "I LOVE YOU"... The wife, louder, from the other side of the workshop: "EXCUSE ME?"
Birdwatchers from all over the world, unite! but hush, there's an eurasian treecreeper juuust there in the garden, look, oh he's magnificent...
😁
6:27 Charles Durning wasn't in any version of DUNE. Are you talking about Freddie Jones as Thufir Hawat in the 1984 film?
I moved to an apartment in Ohio just outside of a small town for two years. I worked 2nd shift at the time and there were some nights after I gotten home from work I heard an owl hooting somewhere around the apartment. Then one night I had just gotten home from work I walk around to the back door I heard the owl hooting and I stopped a looked up to a nearby tree and seen the outline of the owl against the night sky before it seen me and flew off.
My grandfather had a collection of old Sears catalogs. He stored them in this weird little stinky shed in his backyard.
First I thought they were called "barn" owls. THEN I Learned it was "barred" owls. THEN I learned that there are both.
Have you seen the snow geese at the refuge near Willows along interstate 5?
I think you'll find that barn owls are more common there than you thought. I'm in San Diego and they're quite common here, often living in the palm trees. They really are very flexible.
Adding to the confusion is the fact that barn owls screech. It really does sound like a scream. And screech owls don't screech, they whinny.
I wish I could book an hour with Adam to get life advice. I feel like it could help more than my therapist. Is it hard as a patreon to get one's question answered on the livestream?
I tried one of those bird ID apps - it seemed to have two delusions it keep presenting to me - 1) that every unknown bird song is an american robin 2) american robins are rare in my area - both statements I know to be demonstrably untrue 🙂 Gonna try the Merlin one based on your usage story and hope it works better
As a long time camp councilor and director,.I can also strongly recommend the Merlin bird app
I so want to see Adam train a raven to say "never more." ^-^
P.S. i know this would be difficult, but ravens are pretty smart for birds. Maybe even genius level (for a bird), as they are known tool users.
I have 2 owl stories.
The first, it was during the covid lockdowns in the UK, I was sat in the grave yard behind my local church around sunset (playing Pokemon Go xD it was a good spot). I was sat on a bench and I just happened to look up as this large brown bird shot across my vision from left to right, completely silent, would have never know it was there if I hadn't happened to have looked up from my phone at that moment. I can't help the feeling there is a message in there somewhere to unpack.
The other is in my back garden behind the house there is a tall brick wall forming a courtyard, behind that is a grass path that was still part of our property and against the boundry fence to a wooded pond area there was the small ball of fluff. As I got closer to it I realised that it was a young owl half asleep. Clearly it had been trying to learn to fly and hadn't been able to get back home and had fallen asleep where it felt safe against the overgrown fencing.
Both of these sightings were within a few hundred meters of each other so I would imagine both owls were related and the baby owl I am fairly sure was a Tawny Owl.
2:37
"If I could wave my magic wand
I'd make everything all right
I'm not one to believe in magic
But I sometimes have a second-sight
I'm not one with a sense of proportion
When my heart still changes overnight"
~Peart
around 2018 i was out on a bike ride. It gets to dusk im going down this long straight road through fields and just in my periphery vision i see something moving. Looking at it i see that its a snowy owl and its fling about 5 meters from me next to me at about 2 half meters form the ground. This owl continues to fly with me riding my bike we look at each other a few times. was just amazing. a car comes into few with bright headlights the owl flies away, i was a little sad.
Are systems of thinking, frameworks, these mental gymnastics, are these "science"? It feels important and as someone who focuses my study and creativity on play and gaming, I personally feel is important but it feels commonly in the realm of unscientific but I'd love for that conception to change.
Try a Nevermore coffee mug. Ravens love them.
Hey Adam, my dad works on the tech for the Merlin app and other field observation projects from the Cornell ornithology folks. Could make a connection if you’re interested in doing a video on their work. They deal with really interesting tech and engineering problems trying to make sound recording boxes robust enough to survive months unattended in remote jungles etc.
I nearly skipped this video. Glad I didn't. Never expected Adam to be a fellow birder!!
Around 25 years ago I thought I heard a Honda bee-bee-bee-beep key alarm.
Turned out to be a mockingbird.
Adam, you should check out two recent books by local Bay Area writer Jack Gedney on local avians: "The Private Lives of Public Birds" and "The Birds In The Oaks." He is a truly great writer.
If I had a magic wand, I would go back in time to take that gig, seek justice in a certain situation, spend time with friends, do my homework and tell people that I love them.
My girlfriend has a magic wand. She seems quite happy with it
From a japanese wandsmith?
Yep and his name is "honey"
Add me to the list of those who've had the wits scared out of them by an owl swooping overhead. 3am, so quiet it sounded like the whole world was asleep, and I'm walking along quietly. My footsteps are the only sound in the deafening silence of the night. Suddenly a large object appeared over my head moving quickly. He came from behind and passed completely silently about 8-10 feet overhead. I nearly had a heart attack and hit the deck! The owl passsd over and flew up into a perch about 100 feet away and looked down at me. I swear he was laughing!! 😂
i Felt like i already saw this video. But it was a segment from a recent episode of @StarTalk where Neil was asked the same question.
I'm a User Researcher and I use a magic wand question in all of my interviews.
I also use a laddering technique with it.
Yes, those Merlin app “false positives” aren’t false as much as you might think. We’ve been very surprised several times over the last few years here in Florida, finally seeing that bird that we were sure wasn’t in our area. 👍🏻
"Presto." Great Rush lyric.
If I could wave a magic wand, I’d go back to when my wife and I were looking for our first place to live together, I’d want an extra bedroom for a separate project space… and in-unit laundry.
NPR bird note.... big fan
Salesman: *slaps roof of barn*
"This bad boy can fit so many owls in it."
We have barn owls that live on our property and fly over nightly. I'm in San Diego county.
Owls are the stealth bomber of the bird world. I've been scared out of my wits by owls swooping to take a look at me when i was in the woods at night. Because you can't hear them. It's just suddenly there is a large bird very close to me, and i didn't see or hear it coming. The owls were just being curious, but it's a jump scare when it happens.