Hi, Tweetsters. I'm forwarding the story below and an update (immediately
following, hopefully) about a fascinating encounter with a Great Horned
Owl. I waited till I got permission of the author--apologies for
duplication if someone else already forwarded this post from the nw native
plants listserv. Hope you like the story! --Anna Coles, Seattle.

Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2000 16:09:11 -0800
A friend sent me this e-mail today. She lives on a farm outside of
McMinnville, Or. I had to share it with all of you.

Wow, when I got home from work this morning I had the most incredible owl
sighting. I had to write and tell you about the most fascinating owl
experience we witnessed this morning. It was just light (about 7:30) and I
saw the llamas staring at something in the front field as I was sitting at
the kitchen table. I saw a huge bird and a cat tangling by the fence and
the cat jumped the fence. The bird was still on the ground. The horse went
over to investigate the cat/bird fight and out of curiosity, then the bird
threatened the horse. This made the horse mad and he struck at it and the
bird struck at him, he was obviously going to fight the horse. (it looked
like the bird was rolling over and striking at the horse with it's talons),
which riled the horse and he continued to strike at the bird. Three times
he struck at the bird who was defending his ground and obviously not going
to leave. I was getting on my shoes and watching in amazement. The bird
stayed on the ground the whole time. I climbed through the fence and only
after I got up to them did the owl fly off. He had a kill, chicken looked
like it had been dead a couple of days. Though he hasn't come back to kill
in the barn (the talk radio station is obviously not his cup of tea, ha ha)
We have found two kills out in the pasture (a few of the chickens forage out
there). Anyway it was pretty incredible. He may have been defending his
kill from the cat? Thank goodness didn't get ahold of the cat or could
have degutted him with his talons, they are quite capable of killing and
eating a cat or small dog. But to fight a horse! They are truly courageous
creatures. It flew over to the side pasture and into the tree so Steve and
I went to see if we could see him. He was in a pretty low branch and
totally visible so Steve got 10 pictures. This owl was a little smaller and
lighter than the one I have seen but was a Great Horned so it may be a pair
we have here, the females are the larger and the one I viewed closer up on
two other occasions was larger and a little darker. I suspect this was a
male we saw today. I got some interesting info on Great Horned Owls from
the internet. They breed and nest in Jan and Feb. If I hadn't scared him
off the horse might have killed him because he was going to stay on the
ground and fight, he came close to being struck by the horse, if I hadn't
got out there the horse might have killed it, he actually turned and kicked
at it the last time. Sure wish I'd had a video camera, it was a remarkable
thing to see and I would have loved to have documented it. Steve was here
and witnessed it too.
An interesting morning indeed. Life is never dull around the farm. I am
always in awe of the things I have seen here over the years, from kill dear
eggs hatching, hearing the coyote's howl, seeing a fox, the hawks and now
the owl. I am truly fortunate.