Owl Wanted Duck For Dinner, Gets Stuck Instead

This bird let his stomach be his guide, but should have thought through his escape plan a little better.

Sharon Parker-Roberge of Amherst said she had a Great Horned Owl trapped in a duck pen behind her home on Monday. Its search for a quick meal turned into a rescue mission to get that bird out of there.

Here is Sharon's tale of this hungry owl:

We've had an owl issue for the past couple of months. Up until today, I hadn't seen the culprit!  I actually thought we had two owls--one smaller breed and then a great horned because we've had chickens killed one way and ducks another.  

I've tried all kinds of tricks because our ducks are too dumb to let us herd them into their pens at night and keep getting picked off. The two chickens we've lost got hit right at sunset as they were headed in for the night (because chickens at least know to go in where it's safe before dark) and that's how we first identified that particular predator as a great horned. They are the only owls that go out in daylight.

I got up kind of early this morning because our new baby was fussing and needing a diaper change. I went over to grab a fresh diaper and glanced out the window, which overlooks our duck pen, and noticed a really big, brown bird walking back and forth along the side of the fence. I did a double-take, hollered for Alyssa to come take a look, that we'd caught the owl, and grabbed my phone and ran downstairs with her close behind. I think her first thought was for the ducks' safety as the owl was in their pen. My first thought was "I've got to grab a picture or two!"  

The poor bird, as large and intimidating as he/she looked, was scared half to death by us. I had to carefully walk up to the fence to get pictures and Alyssa went over to stand protectively by the mob of ducks huddled over in far corner of the pen. There was one poor dead duck (the target of the owl's attack) but the owl was so scared by being stuck in the pen he/she hadn't eaten any of the duck.

I had to carefully untie part of the netting and roll it back and the owl spotted a gap in the netting and flew out and away, only to land across the street in a big pine tree. Bluejays and crows started flying around making a racket, but the owl just sat there and preened for a bit. He or she was gone when I came out a little later to work on the pen. 

I think it's been a rough winter with so much snow, and our yard probably looked like an all-you-can eat buffet. We don't hold any ill feelings toward our feathery visitor, we just don't want to lose any more birds. Our duck and chickens are pets first, a source of yummy eggs second.