All the recent stories about raptor concentration while
in pursuit of prey reminded me of a few incidents from the days
(about 5 years ago) when I was a full time wildlife rehabilitator.
There was the time a sharpie followed a mourning dove at literally
breakneck speed right into a store window on Main Street in a small
Vermont town. I was sent to "rescue" them but both were dead when I
arrived only a few minutes after hitting the window. Or the time
Fish&Game brought us a Great Horned Owl that they had found wrapped
up inside a schoolyard's soccer net with a rabbit held fast in its
talons. They said it took pliers to get the rabbit free despite the
near-catatonic state the owl was in when they found it. We got a lot
of GHOs that winter, but if I remember correctly we were eventually
able to release that one. Another Great Horned killed some of the
farm cats that a legally blind woman was looking after while her
neighbors were away. She tried throwing brooms and kitchen things in
its general direction in between calls to the Fish & Game. They were
able to just throw a net over it when they arrived. Oh, and that
reminds me of a red-tail that I never found anything wrong with
except that he was a little overstuffed. He was found perched on and
apparently eating a dead (from natural causes I'm sure) cow in a
farmer's field. Again, someone was able to walk right up to him and
throw a net over him while he huffed and puffed and mantled his
"kill."

Peter Whitlock
Boise State University