Close Encouter of the Harry Potter Kind

[BLOCK 213]

I feel I must tell someone about this.
Just sitting here, reading through the forums, when a heard a screeching noise from the garden.
I went out to look and was confronted by a huge owl.
As I walked towards it, it swooped down at me, I ducked and jumped out of the way.
It sat on the fence next to me screeching so loud that the neighbours came out to investigate the noise.
I have just defrosted some mice for the snakes feed for tonight and thought that this could be a good opertunity to get some owl photos. I have never seen one around here, ever.
With a welders glove on one hand and holding a mouse I approached the owl. It was about 18 inches tall and covered with downy feathers, I tried to position the camera and before I knew it, the owl and the mouse were gone.
My heart is still beating, I have never seen anything move so fast or silently. I think it must be someones pet owl as it was definitly not scared of humans. I will keep a lookout for it again and try to get photos.

[BastianUSA]

WTF?
That is a cray story.
I would have been scared too.

[Beardedragon]

Was it a white owl Thats pretty cool, there was a HUGE owl in my backyard once, you don't know how big they are up close until they spread their wings. Apparently it went after a field mouse in our back yard, because all of our dogs were accounted for

[hoo-t]

Amazing story! I'm glad you shared it. At the store where I work, the pigeons outside are becoming less and less afraid of humans. Twice, one has managed to get trapped in the entry foyer, and it has fallen upon me to catch and release it. A couple days ago, I was walking out as one landed a couple feet from me and simply walked ahead of me. I've thought it would be cool to feed them by hand, but that might not go over well with our customers!

Hand feeding an owl would be sooo much cooler than feeding a pigeon!!!!

Steve

[spix14]

That's awesome! I've always wanted to get up close and personal with a big bird of prey. I bet it was pretty freaking scary though.

Around here we have a hawk that inhabits the field next to my apartments...but alas, he doesn't want to be friends.

Thanks for sharing! Hopefully he comes back so you can show us some pics!

[ADEE]

very cool.. be careful though!