maybe an owl?

[narwhal master]

Quote: I mention the above quote as a conv., at the feedstore, with a fellow customer, seemed to indicate a more `chicken-like' response, to an attack by a GHO, on a Narri tom roosting on the gate of a horse stall in an open barn. The owner discovered dead tom, lying on back, with a neatly circular "half an Osage Orange" sized crater of the tom's R breast `meat' excised (about half the size of a softball). The tom had numerous V shaped incisions about the head and throat and from the amount of blood found on/around gate, it seems he was bleeding out as the the GHO pressed the issue (trying to push the tom off of gate). The tom had put up something of a fight as GHO ID was made from several facial feathers found stuck on gate in tom's dried blood.

Have seen Barred Owls carrying snakes festooned in beaks, just at sundown - but mostly voles and Nocturnal Flying Squirrels. Barred Owls are very vocal and make the poultry nervous (whining and growling) at sundown while still out and about, but the Barred have yet to make an attack.
a barred owls call sounds like "who cooks for you, who cooks for you, who cooks for you all"

 

[ivan3]

narwhal master wrote: a barred owls call sounds like "who cooks for you, who cooks for you, who cooks for you all"

Our closest neighbors are all ensconced in an old church graveyard. When we have visitors from in-town, out here in the evenings, late in the Barred breeding season (when it is starting to warm up and we are all out back in the yard) the range and length and variety of `cachinnations' produced by the Barred Owls can scare the living poop (sic) out of some of the folks. When any shoot me that wide-eyed questioning look - I just deadpan - "nothing but the souls of the dead crying out..."

It's a hoot...

 

[ARWyandott]

Thanks to everyone for the good discussion and info.