Henry Rifle Forums

Miss Tina took the dog out just before bed tonight, something one of us does every night. When they went out the back door and off the back porch, Fiona turned left as always, to check for deer, and a huge owl took off from the edge of the house where it had been sitting. Watching for small vermin? He flew as far as the back fence line and landed on a post.

Miss Fiona, of course, doesn't realize she is bite size, and wanted to go AFTER the owl, who was as big as she is.
Tina yelled at her to "Leave it" and Fiona gave her Stink Eye, but did as she was told. We both know better. She came in the house and pouted. Tina shined the flash light on the post in the back yard, the owl was still sitting there, hunting.
He told her to send the dog back out.

We declined.

We have had owls take full grown Guinea Fowl in a single pass, BOOM. All that was left behind was a burst of feathers.

We have a lot of Barred Owls around our property. When the sun goes down you can hear their distinctive hoots. I see them when out in the woods, especially around this time of year. With no foliage on anything but the pines, they stand out.
This past deer season, I was in a treestand down near some land recently flooded by beavers, and there was a Blue Jay going nuts behind me. After about a minute, I had to turn myself around and see what that was all about. There was a barred owl about 20 feet away and staring at me, and the blue jay was dive bombing him the whole time. I'm sure that owl was trying to figure out what that big thing was (me) and he was oblivious to the jay the whole time.
What's really neat to me about the owls is how quiet they are. I can hear a crow or a raven fly over by the sound their wings make in the air. I've seen small hawks dive on squirrels, or swoop past our birdfeeders, and you can hear the hawk's approach too. But the owls are amazingly silent. As big as their wingspan is, they don't make any sound.

I was in my tree stand this past deer season and one flew past me like a freight train. I hadn't seen one around my land prior to this. With the owls, hawks, coyotes, coons etc, small game is getting a workout around here.

Close call for Miss Fiona good thing you guys were paying attention.

Several years ago we had what was originally a barn cat. Once I put a dog door on the back door she figured out how to use it and started coming into the house. Turned out she was a perfect house guest and we never needed a litter box. But we put her outside every night and blocked the dog door. So one night I heard a cat scream but I didn’t pay that much attention to it as there was a cat from down the road that would stop by from time to time for a tussle. Next morning we couldn’t find the cat until the neighbor told us there was a flock of ravens over at their place making a racket. Yep there was poor Kittyb just skin and bones. There had been a large owl hanging around and we’re sure that’s what got her. So in her honor my wife bought this sign which greats visitors who come up our driveway.

We raise English Bulldogs and we have had barn owls and red tail hawks take notice when ever we had pups outside. Luckily never lost a pup but it made a person nervous when the hawks would circle above and the barn owls swoop from tree to tree.

Mostly Barred Owls up here, but where I grew up in Nebraska, the big owls were the Great Horned. These are the largest and most fierce owls and will attack anything they think they can overpower. I had a friend at a local raptor rehab facility and she once told me that you never turned your back on a Great Horned when you got one in for rehab. They never tamed up like other raptors.

Tina went down to the barn one night and a huge owl was on a fence post, she shined her light on him and he froze, she was able to walk within a couple feet of him. She turned the light off and when he focused on her she yelled "Boo!"



She thought it would be funny, but in an explosion of wings and power that blew her hair back, he exited stage UP. It was like a roadrunner cartoon, without the "Meep Meep."

Live in the city but there is a lot of woods and the river around us. Hear the owls around in the evening and one day I was in the backyard and had one big one fly right over me low to the ground. Gets your attention !