I'd been losing birds for weeks in one of my inside coops. I couldn't figure out what it was though, since the coop is a partitioned area of a new barn. The floor is concrete, the walls are tin on three sides, the other side is 10'+ tall. Some birds would have their wings ripped off, some were missing toes, some would completely disappear and others were headless. All of the parts were always inside the coop.
We put some bird netting across the doorway to the barn, but they were still getting killed. I moved all of my birds out of there, and one day noticed a new pile of feathers inside, from a dove. We figured it had to be some kind of bird of prey, as it would be difficult for anything else to catch a dove in there.
Last week my husband came home to tell me the beast had been captured, and wasn't too pleased about it. This is what we found:
He is a Great Horned Owl. In that instant I forgave him for killing 15+ of my birds and messing up my breeding program. He was just so beautiful, and didn't even look real. He was almost 2 feet tall. We untangled him, put him in a dog crate and drove him 10 miles to another part of the ranch to release him. Hopefully he won't be back, but my coop needs securing anyway. Even if he had died, another one could easily come along. He's just doing what comes naturally, and is good at it. There's no sense in hunting when he has his dinner laid out in front of him.
We put some bird netting across the doorway to the barn, but they were still getting killed. I moved all of my birds out of there, and one day noticed a new pile of feathers inside, from a dove. We figured it had to be some kind of bird of prey, as it would be difficult for anything else to catch a dove in there.
Last week my husband came home to tell me the beast had been captured, and wasn't too pleased about it. This is what we found:
He is a Great Horned Owl. In that instant I forgave him for killing 15+ of my birds and messing up my breeding program. He was just so beautiful, and didn't even look real. He was almost 2 feet tall. We untangled him, put him in a dog crate and drove him 10 miles to another part of the ranch to release him. Hopefully he won't be back, but my coop needs securing anyway. Even if he had died, another one could easily come along. He's just doing what comes naturally, and is good at it. There's no sense in hunting when he has his dinner laid out in front of him.
