Birds, Beasts and Bugs.

TheSongDogHouse said:
I was driving down the highway one night and saw "something" feeding on something on the side of the road show up in headlights and slowed and swerved but the bird that flew up still bounced off windshield..."THUMP!"
So, I pulled over, backed up to find a juvenile great horned owl stunned standing but with a broken wing...
so I wrapped it in a towel and took to Animal Control...who shook their head...had to put it down.
But, dayem...tough bird!

PS: watch those talons- I read at the time: second only to golden eagle for "most grip strength" in NA avian predators. Great Horned owls will swoop in and take sleeping crows right off the branch in roost trees...dinner!
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Wow!

A couple years ago, in my secret camp, I was watching something in a tree top and saw an eagle swoop in and pick up a squirrel from the tree and head out over the ocean. The squirrel was making quite the racket.
 
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...ah, nice. Two great birds of prey executing their skills to gain sustenance while achieving the demise of two creatures very high on my list of obnoxious creatures...squirrels, and crows.
We have eagles roost quite regularly in the trees in front of our home, but they seem much more interested in the fish in the lake, than the many mischievous squirrels in our yard.
I did see one knock a crow from it's roost when a murder of about 50 were harassing the lone eagle roosting in a nearby tree. After about 20 minutes of their incessant cawing, the lone eagle dropped about 20 ft straight down, and knocked an inattentive crow off it's perch, before gliding out over the lake, and away from it's tormentor's. The only more satisfying thing would have been if the crow had been in it's talons as it flew off, but unfortunately that wasn't he case.
 
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As god is my witness...
Ok, another true owl story...
One nite walking the dogs after dark in a suburban open space, out of the corner of my eye I see a patch of white sitting on a dead tree craggy stick...its a near full moon nite, and I'd seen barn owl perched calling on the hunt there before.

As i turn to look closer from the left i catch motion...a dark thing swoop soundlessly out of the darkness,
Then a sudden burst of a cloud of white feathers and a choked off screech...
and a motionless barn owl hanging clutched in the talons of a big great horned owl...gliding away...

so smooth it looked like it hadnt even altered its flight path...just continued on a long glide downhill...wings outstretched, not even flapping....silent as the nite...disappeared in the dark...

It was shaped like a b2 stealthbomber, and so noiselessly bad ass...natures red claws as they say...

I couldn't make out where the bigger owl landed or perched to stop to feed out in the darkness, but

It was so ruthlessly efficient I wouldnt have known if I hadnt seen it, and almost thought "did I imagine that?..."
So I came back and did find a pile of feathers under that perch on the crag the next day...

...it was owl on owl predation.
 
TheSongDogHouse said:
As god is my witness...
Ok, another true owl story...
One nite walking the dogs after dark in a suburban open space, out of the corner of my eye I see a patch of white sitting on a dead tree craggy stick...its a near full moon nite, and I'd seen barn owl perched calling on the hunt there before.

As i turn to look closer from the left i catch motion...a dark thing swoop soundlessly out of the darkness,
Then a sudden burst of a cloud of white feathers and a choked off screech...
and a motionless barn owl hanging clutched in the talons of a big great horned owl...gliding away...

so smooth it looked like it hadnt even altered its flight path...just continued on a long glide downhill...wings outstretched, not even flapping....silent as the nite...disappeared in the dark...

It was shaped like a b2 stealthbomber, and so noiselessly bad ass...natures red claws as they say...

I couldn't make out where the bigger owl landed or perched to stop to feed out in the darkness, but

It was so ruthlessly efficient I wouldnt have known if I hadnt seen it, and almost thought "did I imagine that?..."
So I came back and did find a pile of feathers under that perch on the crag the next day...

...it was owl on owl predation.
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Whoof. I can feel that.

There has been an otter around my pond that I've seen evidence of but this one is so stealth it wouldn't show itself. Yesterday, in the afternoon it slipped onto the pond and started going after the ducks from underneath. And, you know, if you didn't know quite how to fly yet, yesterday was flight day. Ducks were bursting upwards all over and shrieking like crazy. The otter would chase one up and down the pond. A little group of youngsters were huddled on a little mud patch, all bunched up and pointing the same way.

I dont know if any of them became a meal but this was a big animal! I'd guess about 40+ lbs. Later, I saw a little fluffy, tiny dog running loose and suggested they be careful.
On the pics you have to zoom in to see it exiting the far shore. I wouldn't want to meet this otter on the road.
 

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Jenn said:
Did it die? Is that what hit your roof?
Once I picked up a dead bird (that had hit my windshield) to bury at my destination. I put it on the floor of the back seat. Just about when I got to my destination it revived. I was able to introduce it to a new woods.
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and for some reason, he...was....pissed :D
 
TheSongDogHouse said:
As god is my witness...
Ok, another true owl story...
One nite walking the dogs after dark in a suburban open space, out of the corner of my eye I see a patch of white sitting on a dead tree craggy stick...its a near full moon nite, and I'd seen barn owl perched calling on the hunt there before.

As i turn to look closer from the left i catch motion...a dark thing swoop soundlessly out of the darkness,
Then a sudden burst of a cloud of white feathers and a choked off screech...
and a motionless barn owl hanging clutched in the talons of a big great horned owl...gliding away...

so smooth it looked like it hadnt even altered its flight path...just continued on a long glide downhill...wings outstretched, not even flapping....silent as the nite...disappeared in the dark...

It was shaped like a b2 stealthbomber, and so noiselessly bad ass...natures red claws as they say...

I couldn't make out where the bigger owl landed or perched to stop to feed out in the darkness, but

It was so ruthlessly efficient I wouldnt have known if I hadnt seen it, and almost thought "did I imagine that?..."
So I came back and did find a pile of feathers under that perch on the crag the next day...

...it was owl on owl predation.
Click to expand...

I hear owls are dumb as a bag of rocks though. Joe Rogan makes that point often...
 
Sweeney said:
I hear owls are dumb as a bag of rocks though. Joe Rogan makes that point often...
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Its true, according to an animal trainer I met who was doing Rattlesnake Avoidance training, a good idea for trail dogs in the SWUS.

He claimed the owls he had had over the years along with hawks, etc were highly specialized- the evolutionary niche advantage was the big section of brain devoted to processing visual at nite...
and no room for much more.
 
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