Birders wonder if they contributed to owl's death

CLTV Chicago ^ | October 30, 2008 | William Mullen

[Daffynition]

When Chicago birders flocked to Montrose Beach this week for a glimpse of two strange birds not often seen in these parts, they got something far more: a bloody death scene and a queasy feeling they might be partly to blame.

[Daffynition]

[gorush]

The horror!

I shot (photographed) this Barred Owl in our yard last winter but kept it quiet for its own protection

[Diana in Wisconsin]

‘Circle of Life’ and all that rot...

We had a Great Horned owl in the chicken coop a few years back. He didn’t hurt a soul and was ‘roosting’ with The Girls on their roost. One of them complained, and loudly, so we came running. He left without a fuss.

What a magnificent creature. :)

[Daffynition]

Magnificent! Barred owls are so incredible ...I’ve only seen one in my lifetime.

[Daffynition]

I have a special place in Vermont where more than a dozen Great Horned owls roost. I love to walk in at dusk and watch their silent launches into the night. ;)

[PowderMonkey]

Last summer my father in law called out to me as he slowly walked towards his bird feeder and reached out to a little gold finch perched motionless within inches of his fingers. He was amazed as the little guy never moved while he drew nearer and nearer. He touched the tail feathers, and the little finch took to the air...only to explode in a ball of feathers when a Coopers hawk hit him like an air-to-air missile. “Oh...that's why he wouldn't move” said my crest fallen FIL as bright yellow feathers rained down around him. OH THE HUMANITY!

[gitmo]

I watched a Great Horned Owl for 3-4 hours a couple of weeks ago. I knew some predator was up in this oak tree because the crows were mobbing him. They eventually gave up the fun and I fetched my binoculars out of my SUV.

We watched each other a long time.

[Hot Tabasco]

Birds out of range will either make it back to their "range" or not. This has been happening since the things began to fly and will continue until they are forced to walk.

That's just the way it is, it ain't no big deal........

[Trillian]

I saw this comment under the article at the site:

Dear Birders,

Thank you, that owl was delicious.

Sincerely,
C. Hawk

lmao..

[JoeProBono]

Juvenile burrowing owl

Kissy kissy

[girlangler]

I have a lot of barred owls here, have had them sit and watch me from nearby trees at night. It’s neat to sit near my firepit at night and listen to them call back and forth in the woods.

And hawks, I have lots of hawks, even watched an eagle fly close overhead one day (we are on a big lake and have eagles nest here).

Many years ago I fished with a guide on this lake. There was a shad kill (extreme cold) and there were huge shad floating on the surface. The shad were so thick you could walk on them. I watched a pair of nesting eagles feast on them.

I also have a lot of bats.

Not many rabbits. I was talking with my brother tonight, discussing why I have so few rabbits here. We figured it’s because we have so many birds of prey (I blamed it on foxes, etc.)

When I first moved into my home, my yard was filled with skeletons of small animals, scattered all over.

[poobear]

“Oh...that’s why he wouldn’t move” said my crest fallen FIL as bright yellow feathers rained down around him.

LOL!!! Thanks for an early Saturday morning belly laugh!

[grellis]

I love Coopers.

Living in an urban, downtown hood as I do, I don't see many raptors, with the exception of a Red Tail Hawk now and then. Well, about four years ago, a juvie Cooper took up residence on the street adjacent to mine. We figured she (turned out to be a she) would move along after a week or two, but she didn't. She's made herself quite a home here, and my front feeders are her lunchtime cafe. I'm not complaining! She's an incredible animal.

Very early this spring, we spotted her on several occasions with a male. In mid-August, we got our first really good look at their fledgeling. It was perched on top of a telephone pole near our house, setting up an unGodly amount of ruckus--screeching, beating its wings, just going crazy--it had starlings coming at it from above and a squirrel coming at it from the pole, and it didn't know how to react. Both mom AND dad hawk showed up after about five minutes. They were able to keep the taunters at bay well enough for baby to get back to the nest. My kids didn't stop talking about it for weeks. They've never seen animal drama play out in real life.

This almost didn't happen. The Cooper's nest is in a huge silver maple, in a stand of about a dozen other trees. The stand is in the middle of a four-acre parcel of prime downtown real estate, which is set to become a 58-unit housing development. Construction was supposed to begin early spring, but keeps getting delayed. By this time next year, the Coopers will be just a memory for us, but we sure enjoy them now.

[Grammy]

We were keeping a canary for my dad, and had it sitting on a windowsill. One night I heard a huge “whump”, and the bird started going nuts. A few minutes later, I heard another “whump” and the canary fell to the bottom of the cage, its feet sticking straight in the air, like it was dead. I looked at that fool bird, talking to Mr G, asking “what is going on with that fool bird, and what is that noise?”

A moment later, I heard a third “whump” and saw an owl thumping against the window, trying to get the canary. Apparently the canary had fainted from fear since he came to a few minutes later and seemed no worse for the wear.

The owl gave up, but I did find our suet feeder underneath a very large poplar the next morning. We guessed that once the owl found he wasn’t going to have canary for dinner, he settled for flying squirrel. They like to take advantage of the suet feeder, and the owl grabbed one, as well as the feeder, and took it to a nice high spot for supper.

[Flycatcher]

I've never seen a barred owl (they're not out in the desert) but I did once capture a weak burrowing owl. It was in our backyard in Lake Havasu City. Don't know how it got there, but it didn't fly off as I walked outside. I was able to pick it right up. Sadly, as I was trying to give it some water through an eye dropper, it made a large expiration and died right in my lap. Sad day.

I did save a young roadrunner though a few weeks later. It's mom got run over (accidentally) by the idiot I used to work with, and it was orphaned on our palm tree in the backyard. It ended up on our doorstep surrounded by two cats. Fortunately, I scared off the cats and captured the roadrunner and took it to the local animal shelter. They fed it, fixed it up, and let it go two days later.

So I guess I'm batting .500 on saving big backyard birds.

[Flycatcher]

Great story. We have a lot of Cooper's out in the desert where we live. Once I was out quading and spotted a lone Cooper's just sitting in a stumpy catclaw acacia. It didn't fly off as I approached, so I stopped the quad, jumped off, and walked toward it. Shockingly, I got to within about ten yards before it finally flew off. I figured it must have a nest in the catclaw to be so reluctant to fly off. I was wrong. There was no nest, but there was a small covey of Gambel's quail at the base of the catclaw, all hunkered down to escape the Cooper's.

Yes, life is tough when you're a quail.