deceased GHOW?

[millipede 207]

I'm assuming this is a Great horned owl...  Given the position it's in has me wanting to double check but that's what it looks like to me.

Last Saturday I was on a field trip with the NWAAS(Northwest Arkansas Audubon Society) at the Eagle Watch Nature Trail in Gentry, AR.  It was a not so organized trip where people kind of spread out and did their own things most of the time. I walked a wooded trail that only a few others walked and I saw in an adjacent field, something big enough to catch my eye. Bird of prey....... so, I looked again and then realized it was just hanging there. 😞  So I chose to get off the trail and go look closer. I found this owl just dangling there. Took a couple pictures and chased won a guy that manages this particular hotspot(as in maintains it.) He told me that it had been there for months. He had the same thing happen to him at the end of summer(so yeah, months) when he found it, he thought there was a live bird and he tried to sneak in for some good photographs. Sad sight to see.  Interesting how intact it seems after hanging there for so long.

I typed a long message for details but also to give people a chance to not see a dead owl as soon as they click on this topic.

Confirm Great horned?

 

[IvoryBillHope 366]

Yes, Great Horned Owl…I'd imagine that's a tough thing to see in person. 

[millipede 207]

10 minutes ago, IvoryBillHope said:

I'd imagine that's a tough thing to see in person. 

somehow it wasn't the saddest thing I'd ever seen. I think I was focused on finding someone to mention it to. And the field trip.

First sora I ever saw was dead. I've seen my share of dead birds while birding and it is often quite saddening.

[Kerri 128]

I find it unusual that it is still hanging by one foot if it has been there for awhile? The toes seem to have unclenched the tree limb too. Also, what is that at the wrist area that seems to be a small circle? Could it be a an owl that had leather jesses on it and the leather jess is caught in the tree causing the owl to dangle there?

[Charlie Spencer 1,038]

1 hour ago, millipede said:

somehow it wasn't the saddest thing I'd ever seen. I think I was focused on finding someone to mention it to. And the field trip.

First sora I ever saw was dead. I've seen my share of dead birds while birding and it is often quite saddening.

Other than a couple of road-kill vultures, I don't recall ever seeing a dead bird in the field.  I do find a few dead songbirds in my yard annually.  I've probably buried a dozen or so over the years.

[MRich8802 2]

Perhaps he is just sleeping

[meghann 217]

There's an overpass near our house that has had a dead Barn Swallow hanging from it for over six months. He got tangled in something attached to the overpass. I'm amazed the body is still there and looks like it did the first day, but also depressed every time I have to drive under that overpass. 😞

[Seattle 777]

I saw a great horn that was killed on a power pole.  I wish all the power poles had raptor protection.  

[spoonbill21 1]

we've had a redhead stuck to the phone line for a few months by fishing line then a laughing gull got stuck too. early last year we had the same problem with a brown pelican

[Charlie Spencer 1,038]

13 hours ago, MRich8802 said:

Perhaps he is just sleeping

The original post says the bird has been there for months.  Also, while bats may sleep hanging from one foot, owls don't.

[The Bird Nuts 1,537]

We were reminded of this sad story when a Northern Hawk Owl was shot by someone who was annoyed by all the birders coming to look at it. https://www.audubon.org/news/a-rare-owl-turned-dead-are-birders-blame

Apparently owls can hang by one foot when they die...  :[

Edited February 9 by The Bird Nuts

[millipede 207]

Just an update. I had contacted a few people about this owl to see if anyone was interested in it. A PHD student at the university of Arkansas went and collected it today for use in their lab. I'm not quite sure what that means but this guy headed up some productive surveys and research on northern saw-whet owls in Arkansas over the last few years, learning that there are more throughout this area during migration than people realized. I hope some good comes of this poor bird's demise.

He too doubted that the bird had been hanging there since late summer, he thought it seemed fresher. I hope either he's wrong or the guy that said it had been there for so long was wrong about how long... or, it actually kept for that long. Would be pretty sad if it was a second one. Just the other year there was a nest with two young just on the other side of this hotspot. You needed a scope to really see them in the nest but it was my first time seeing one. It was actually a red-tailed hawk's nest that the owls took over at some point.