Great horned owl going for a gray fox

[Kattt]

[Kattt]

The owl posing for the trailcam

[Steofan M]

So Kat, the take-away here is that foxes don’t look up and though they can detect mouse-noise under the snow, not so with owl-noise up above.
Incredible postings! Thanks for sharing!

[Ben C]

Wow, what a cool action shot.  I always wonder how an owl would handle a large animal like a fox if it got one.  It would be quite a fight in the air.

[Jerry Adams]

Cool

The owl must have noticed the trail camera and investigated it

or they offered the owl a mouse if he’d pose : )

[jscott]

Amazing footage! I’m sort of surprised that the owl missed. Maybe it has to be more cautious with large prey that can fight back.

[Gary Dunckel]

One night a great horned owl tried to take out my cat, right in front of me. I wondered just how it could lift off, as the cat was the same size as the owl. But apparently they can do it. A fox, maybe not. But I couldn’t believe how silent the owl was during his approach, and also when it lifted off after seeing me The other thing I couldn’t believe was how the owl swiveled its head 180 degrees to see where I was. I can’t do that. Beautiful animals, they are…

[Hiking Malto]

Kat, you have outdone yourself with this one.  This may have me looking up a bit when I nighthike.

 

[Kattt]

@Steofan thanks. That is good insight. Their ears don’t seem designed  to hear what comes from above, at least not when at rest.

Thanks Ben and Jeffrey!

@Gary I knew they did it because after I saw one swoop down on a fox in front of my car I read about it and they do indeed catch and eat foxes. These are little grays btw,  not much bigger than a house cat.

Malto…thank you

[Kate Anthony]

Awesome video!

[Rodney Ackerman]

Agreed, another great video, thanks!

About the fox not hearing. I saw a film not so long ago that explained how owls fly quietly. It was fascinating. (Perhaps it was on PBS?) If I am not mistaken, almost silently. I would say with the excellent hearing the fox possesses it is as close to silent as could be.

[Jerry Adams]

I had a Goshawk that kept hitting me in the head and knocking my hat off, must have been protecting it’s young.

Even when I was listening for it I couldn’t hear it.  And it chose a path where it approached from behind a tree and it wasn’t until the last moment that it appeared around a corner.  And knocked my hat off.

I finally just held a branch up over my head for protection.

Amazing how quiet birds can fly when they want to.

[Kattt]

Thanks Rodney and Kate.  I would love to watch that film about owl’s in flight. One thing I did not mention is that I have several videos of foxes in this location where when we ( and they) hear a hooting owl in the distance they definitively pay attention and look alerted.

Jerry, Goshawks are amazing. The most beautiful flight I have ever seen was a slow motion of a Goshawk flying through a forest and making a turn around a tree trunk, using it’s talons to negotiate the turn and push itself off. It affected me in ways I can’t put into words. If I can find it I will post it but it was a few second of an 4 minute video…

[Kattt]

Here it is! So well worth watching, the entire thing. What I mentioned starts at 2:45

 

https://youtu.be/FbnPxoSANd0

 

The hunting…. is sad and awesome at the same time..

ps. Home recovering from another surgery and watching this kind of stuff is a treat

[Jerry Adams]

wow!  That is some amazing video.  I wonder how long it took them to get all that.  And how did they do it all????

Yeah, it is sad.  I kind of prefer the videos where the prey gets away : )  Except then the predator goes hungry which is bad for it.  They didn’t show anything gory though, that’s what bothers me.  I have sen video where they intentionally shown the gory parts.

Which could take us to the thread about whether we should eat meat.

The guy behind me didn’t fare so well:

[Jeffs Eleven]

I saw that doc about owl flight. It was amazing. The sound guys were giddy because their high end precision mics couldn’t pick up an owl flying right over it.

[Sharon J.]

Here’s the relevant clip from the documentary Rodney and Jeff mentioned:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/owl-power-owl-shows-silent-flight-superpower/11608/

 

[Ian]

Another great series of videos Kat!

[Author]

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