Great Horned Owl...?
 

Monday night, on Brody's and Mia's last potty break outside...and I watch up in the branches because we have huge oak tree branches covering the yard...I heard leaves rustling. Expecting squirrels, I looked up and saw fluttering, then heard a big owl. The call sounded like a Great Horned Owl, and he was just over our heads in the tree branches. He spoke twice and flew away but when I saw the fluttering, I knew it wasn't squirrels and started grabbing Yorkies...heart pounding...running for the house.
"The Great Horned Owl is native throughout Florida and is the largest of Florida's Owls, with a body length up to 25 inches and a wing span to five feet.

Great Horned Owls prey on a wide variety of animals from fish and snakes to small mammals and birds, a powerful predator, they are capable of taking animals two or three times their own body weight.

The Great Horned Owl is the only large owl in Florida that has "ear tufts"."

:eek::eek::eek: Oh my! Now that is SCARY! Thank goodness all ended up being ok and the big owl flew away. :( Please be careful. I know of people in my area who have lost Yorkies to owls. :( Very very scary.

:shocked7q The Birds:pirate: are coming for our Yorkies - whatever species they are! There is this alarming number of reports here on YT now! It's getting creepy to read all of these reports in the last 6 weeks or so. :shocked7q

I know!!!!! :eek::eek::eek::eek: I am being OVERLY OVERLY protective of my girls!

And with our creepy/crawlies - what in the world is going on here??????????? They are coming from the air and the land - an invasion!!!! :biggrin8::eek::biggrin8::eek::biggrin8::eek:

It sure seems that way, doesn't it? An invasion! I know we have Great Horned Owls...we have woods...and we have photos I cautiously took of her 3 babies in the back yard years ago while Mommy, who was not very big at all, watched us. Our whole yard is covered by a gorgeous canopy of huge granddaddy oak trees...so much so, hardly anything grows due to the deep shade. I have been cautious of predatory birds in the trees when taking Brody and Mia outside. They were on leads, too. Regardless, when you see that first one, it's still really spooky. I probably overreacted...lol I wish I knew what was going on with all the wild critters...hawks, etc. We have hawks, eagles, ospreys and owls. Not a happy thought having a predatory bird possibly hunting your Yorkie babies. I didn't see the owl well in the dark through the tree branches...not well enough to identify it by sight, and had to make sure about what kind it was by researching the call I heard. But, I really do believe it was a Great Horned Owl...no idea what size...but due to the deep, throaty sound, possibly a good sized one. I have been even more watchful since...knowing there is at least one that close by.

Yes, in FL most likely GHO, if it was a large owl. No other big ones live there. Although, honestly, the gators are a bigger threat for sure.

You would really get the creepy/crawlies if you had one fly over your head, land on a tree branch a few yards away and stare at you!:eek: I have had it happen twice. Huge owls! One time it happened during the afternoon and the other time it was a couple of hours after the sun came up. That was creepy! I had the distinct impression it was sending me a "message" and it was not a nice one.:rolleyes: I have to admit I was shocked to see just how huge they are when they fly. I have looked at different owl pictures but have never seen one described to be as big as the ones I have seen. I don't think it was my imagination. They were huge!

Oh my! Message received and understood! :eek:

Florida actually has huge Barred Owls, too, but the call I heard was definitely not a Barred Owl.

I don't worry a lot about alligators because we are far enough from water, have no pool, and only have very small swampy areas within, say 3 miles of the house, so no good habitat for their survival or breeding.

This is gonna sound really weird, because in more than a year of being outside when it was super dark out there walking Yorkies and not seeing or hearing any owls, then seeing and hearing that one Monday night but no more until...just after I posted last night. I took the babies out just after I wrote that post...for their last potty break of the day...and no sooner had we left the porch and what did I hear again but the same owl call! :eek: I didn't see the owl, but we didn't go 5 feet from the porch either. I am really NOT liking this at all...I hope he finds a new home...and soon!

It may be this owl has just moved into your area. Like most wild animals that hunt these critters need their own hunting territory so when the young adults leave the nest they have to go out and find their own hunting ground. If he finds enough to eat there he will stay and if not he may move on. They mostly eat rodents and rabbits but I think they do notice small dogs as well....especially when they are hungry. I have heard owl attacks out in the woods at night and it can be awful. I wouldn't want to try to have to fight one off.

After I met a couple a few years ago whose yorkie was killed by an owl, I looked up many stories on the internet from people whose animals had close calls with hawks and owls. Many were 6lb. dogs, some were picked up carried and then dropped, some were on leashes with their owners. One was carried a couple miles and then dropped. These stories were the ones who survived. The couple I met let their yorkie out at night to potty and then called him back in and he didn't come. They went out with a flashlight and found him dead in the yard with a large puncture wound in his back. They probably scared away the killer. They think it was an owl because in hind sight, an owl had been spotted in the area for a couple days before, but they didn't realize the risk. Since then, I get nervous at night. A few times I've heard an owl hooting far off and it reminds me again. I found this website: Owl Calls & Sounds - All Species which has owl calls that you can listen to if you want to try to identify the type of owl you are hearing. The owls I heard sound like great horned owls. There are probably websites with hawk calls, too, if you want to listen. I think the owls scare me most because they strike at night in the dark and are completely silent. They also don't care if a human is next to small dog or even if its on a leash.

I know I used to have an Owl in my backyard that would sit in my Oak Tree. I haven't seen it, in at least a year.

I got this great picture of it, I can't believe the picture came out so good as it was pitch dark outside and I wasn't sure if I was pointing camera in the right area. Once I took the picture it flew off.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL89/.../396406158.jpg

When we vacation in Hilton Head, there are gators everywhere. Generally, every pond, lagoon, small body of water has one or could have one that you might not see. A friend told me she saw a gator take a golden retriever and later the owner came out of her house calling for the dog. You can't walk near the water's edge down there without being in danger. If they are hunting, you can't see them because they stay perfectly still underwater for several hours just waiting for a victim and they can run very fast.