Posted on 03/12/2010 8:15:10 AM PST by JoeProBono
LOWER STRATTON, England, - Authorities in southwest England are warning residents to be on the lookout for a giant owl that may be hungry enough to make a meal of their pet cat or dog.
The European eagle owl escaped Sunday from its enclosure in the back garden of a home in Lower Stratton, near Swindon, The Times of London Online reports.
"The owner went into the enclosure and the owl flew at him," says a spokeswoman for Wiltshire police.
The spokeswoman said the owl, which has a six-foot wingspan, is unlikely to attack humans because it was bred in captivity.
"But it could try to carry off a cat or small dog," she said. "If anyone spots the owl they should contact police and we will send an appropriate team."
I had a small owl turn in flight and fly straight into my windshield.
If he’d continued flying straight across the road, he’d have been okay.
He squeeked in surprise when he hit.
Made me feel about one inch tall.
I picked him up so he wouldn’t get slowly ground into the pavement, I couldn’t think of a more cruel end for such a bird, and took him with me so he could expire in peace.
The owl in this article would have blasted a hole in my windshield, flapped around in my car, cut me to ribbons, and killed us both.
Not sure...just did a Google image search for the European Eagle Owl and that came up...more proof you can’t trust Google I guess.
I was sitting on a stump in the swamp one morning and had one land on the barrel of my shotgun. I don’t know which one of us had the biggest adrenaline rush!
Hogwarts priority mail
Owls can be quite aggressive. I have a secluded place in the
country and had a huge great horned owl who had a favorite
tree not far from where my drive cut through the woods. One
night about dusk I was coming back from a nightly run when
he decided he didn't want me around. Attacked from behind, I actually felt the wind from his wings before I heard anything. He didn't do any harm, but scared the hell out of
me! I did my last 100 yards in record time! I found him a couple of years later dead under a power line. He had caught a large snake and had tried eating it while perched
on the pole, the snake dangled onto the hot line a killed
them both.
Some years ago I was deer hunting in northern Wisconsin. Fresh snow was on the ground and trees. A snowy owl flew directly overhead but under the tree tops and landed in a tree not 40 yards from me. What struck me was the absolute silence of it all. Eerily and absolutely silent. I’ll never forget it.
I found it strange that there was one in those woods - but I guess their range can at times extend even further south.
ROTFL! Now how many people would have a picture like this around to post? lol
We have many of the real owls on our land, but last summer I put out a resin one by the lawn furniture, because it had been taking quite a few ‘hits’ from other birds...
I figured if I came out and found bird droppings on the resin owl it would be a bif Fail... However, it worked pretty well. The first day, the farthest away lawn chair had a new deposit on it. But the rest of the chairs were fine. The other birds stayed away for the rest of the summer...
Owls earned a great deal of respect from our family after we dissected owl pellets for science class and saw what they can eat whole. The smell was disgusting and I have a picture of my oldest daughter gagging, lol! We put together the bones of about 4 animals from each owl pellet. We were able to identify a shrew and a vole. The other things we weren’t sure about. It was a really cool project.
I have two large ones on my land. Dont know what kind they are, they are cool and totally silent while flying around. Other birds freak out when they are on the move.
Snowy owls are common winter visitors to JFK airport and the adjacent bird sanctuary in NYC.
The barn owls in our neighborhood (we have lots of trees and live next to undeveloped farmland) must be lazy - hear them all the time but they can’t keep the rabbit population down. After what the rabbits did to my garden last year I’m thinking seriously about getting a good pellet rifle.
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