I am not sure how but we caught a GHO. Ben (dog)was chuffing from front porch and Lucy (other dog) was down by a group of pens in pasture where the muffled alarm of a gamecock could be heard. I went down with fancy hand-held spot light to find a Lucy standing point looking at a GHO on the ground between pen and perimeter fencing that should have been hot,....... but was not because I failed to plug it back in just before dark. Along that same was a length of poultry netting used to slow large ground predators so perimeter fence could give repeated zaps. As I approached light went out which became an increasing problem as it kept turning off later. Owl had somehow reached through poultry netting and grabbed hotwire and was twisted about by foot. It took me 20 minutes to undue that bird. Light kept turning off, Lucy had to be watched, netting kept falling back into me and owl, and owl would not cooperate. It was snapping about and trying to grab me with other set of talons as I worked to release the trapped foot. I do not see how bird could get itself so well caught. My guess it was trying to catch something actually under poultry netting and got itself twisted about. It flew off upon release. A least on flight feather was evident a few feet away so it must have really struggled for a bit before I got there. This the first time an owl was so caught. Adjustments will be made although the owls hunting so close to pens almost every night will make effort interesting. Poultry netting being collapsed is part of the problem. A collapsed although hot poultry netting like that had already killed some Plains Toads that I seldom see otherwise. Those toads are a bit bigger than Fowlers Toad and the diminutive American Toad also present.
Scoob (dog recently lost) would have killed and extricated owl himself before I got there. I am very surprised Lucy went into bird dog mode.
