More on the owl. Last week I ended my missive standing in the dark in the chicken house stupidly waiting for the young man who works with the chickens to arrive. I say stupidly because, much later, I realized the owl could see me even when I could not see her. She could have attacked at any time. But she did not. Evidently, if she had latched onto me, she would not have let go until either she or I were dead.
When help arrived, we decided to try and catch the owl with the idea of transporting it to a faraway location, which, I have since learned is also not lawful. Specifically, according to the NC Wildlife Commission: Under federal and state law, it is illegal for anyone to injure, harass, kill or possess a bird of prey or any parts of a bird of prey. This includes harming or removing a nest. In the heat of the moment, we did not consult the law. Rather we got a pretty good-sized tarp and decided we would get her to fly around until she tired and landed. We would then throw the tarp over her, put her in a five-gallon bucket, drive a few miles away, and release her. I use a similar strategy when a bird gets in the house, although I use only a small, light, kitchen towel in order to not injure the bird and carefully carry the bird to an open door to release her. At that point, we were only using our telephone lights to hatch our plan and to assemble the equipment.
When we turned the light back on, we had no trouble getting her to fly around. I think she had been wondering how she was going to get out and had already decided to go for the pop-hole. It is not large enough for her to fly through, so she had to land near it, and walk out. When she landed, we tried to throw the tarp on her and, at that point, began to fly around frantically. We quickly realize how powerful she was and began ducking. Before I had a chance to open a door for her, she banged into the outside door. It is only closed by a latch; so it popped open, and she flew away. But, we no longer found dead chickens in the morning. It appeared the incident had been so traumatic that she was gone for good.
Then in early summer, we began to find a few beheaded chickens in the pasture. Soon we noticed the chicken population was declining more rapidly than could be explained by the number of dead ones we found. It is now pretty clear, that she is killing more than she eats, leaves some, and removes the others. The ninety-seven chickens we had in early January had been reduced to 92 at the time I discovered the owl in the barn. We are now down to only 52!
Next episode: We fight back.
