The news from Davenport, Iowa:Sadie, a petite-sized Pomeranian, landed next to a Davenport street last weekend after surviving a flight of about two miles, clutched in the talons of a great horned owl....
“I had stopped for the sign at East 29th and College when this dog came flying out of the sky right in front of my Jeep — right out of the sky,” says Jamie Padden, Davenport. “It dropped out of nowhere.”
The owl followed, ready to snatch back its lost snack.
Padden was horror-struck to see the little dog scrambling to get away.
“I opened my car door and ran screaming at that owl,” she says. “It was after the dog.
“That owl was so big I swear that its wings spread halfway across the street. That sounds overdramatic, but it’s true.”
Read the whole thing here from the Quad City Times.
A very small Pomeranian does not look too different from a skunk, which is a common food source for Great Horned Owl.
Yep, owls will do that. Had an owl airlift a rabbit from my yard this summer.
ReplyDeleteI suppose there will now be "open season" on those big, bad owls ...
ReplyDeleteHave you eve come across the children's book Owls in the Family?
ReplyDeleteThe two owls in the book develop a wonderful habit of catching the neighborhood cats.
Great horned owls are a lot of fun.
On our property there are many, many barred owls (the ones that say "Who cooks for you--OOOO!") A few year ago, I heard a great horned owl hooting early in the spring (well, late winter), and I didn't hear a singled barred owl the whole summer. Great horned owls drive out the barred owls whenever they share territory.
The most exciting thing that happened that year was when I was coming down the long gravel driveway one night and as the drive way entered a grove of trees, I saw a large opossum at the edge of road. It was maybe 70 feet away from the car.
It froze as it was caught in the headlights, and as it froze there, a great horned owl swooped down and plucked the opossum off the ground. My headlights had caused the opossum to freeze out in the open, allowing the owl, which had probably been pursuing it for some time, a chance to catch it!
An opossum is bigger than a Pomeranian, so what would stop an owl from eating a little dog?
ReplyDeleteI'm sure dogs taste better.