This morning I woke up early but happy that there was nothing urgent waiting for me, I pulled a pillow over my head for a few more minutes of rest. I was almost back to sleep when Anne quietly opened the bedroom door and said in a loud whisper, "MOM! Mom! There's a great horned owl in the chicken house and I can't get him out!" Something urgent after all! I threw off my nightgown, jumped into some clothes and grabbed some thick leather gloves on my way out the door. We had an old blanket in the garage so that came with us. As we trotted out to the chicken house I kept thinking, "How in the heck did an owl get in the chicken house?"
Sure enough, there he was. Isn't he a beauty? It's a juvenile, way too small for an adult but a beautiful young thing, for sure. Anne said he kept blinking at her, first with one eye and then the other. Zoom in and look at those feet!
Anne had tried to shoosh him out the north door which is right there but he wasn't convinced. So I held the blanket in front of me and approached with caution.
I gently put the blanket over him and he backed further between the plywood but I was able to use a wooden stick to nudge him forward into the blanket. He was making his defensive "click - click - clicking" as I reached down and scooped him up. Thankfully, this wasn't my first owl rodeo - I've done this several times before. As I was walking away with him I was thinking that this probably isn't legal but it seemed our best option.
I was really glad I had thick gloves on and several blanket layers because you would not believe the strength in those talons. What a grip. No small animal would have a chance once in those claws. We surveyed the area and decided to take him over by a big tree to release him and see if he was injured.
I set him down and gingerly lifted the blanket off.
He shook himself once and then up, up and away he flew! What a beautiful sight it was. Here's a link to that video.
Afterwards I realized how easily he could have gotten in - we have large windows on the south side of the chicken house and three of them were open, tilted in. The young pullets have taken to roosting on the top of the tilted windows at night, a practice I tried to discourage but if you've ever tried to discourage a chicken from its favorite roost, you'll know what I was up against. So there they were, sitting ducks for any laser owl eye to see, perched within somewhat easy reach. I haven't counted the chickens but there was one pullet wedged back behind the owl in the plywood. Anne got her out and she is apparently unhurt. There was no evidence of a kill and ALL the other chickens were hiding on the west side of the machine shed, safely cowering in the elderberry thicket which is impenetrable. I walked over and called them and they came running out, squawking their tales of adventure. It gets light so early now and their automatic door opens for them so they are out and about at the crack of dawn.
Just yesterday I had stood there inside the chicken house looking at the window openings and thinking, I need to put poultry netting over those openings so the sparrows don't come in and steal all the food. But of course with VBS looming I decided that was a project that could be put off another week. It has moved up the priority list and will get done today!
And now we know the GHOs are alive and well in Nettle Creek!
