Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints I got robbed!... By an owl I think.

Walked out to a tripod we have on the edge of a pasture to do some coyote calling and blasting with the thermal. The coyotes have been rough on the goats this year.

I got out there just at 7 pm, turned on my Foxpro Shockwave, set it about 60yards away at about 10-o'clock position and climbed up into the tripod. Darkness was falling and I did a little scanning with the thermal. Sure enough, I spot 2 small gray foxes passing through at about 7:20. I shoot the only one I had a good shot at, it cried out and then lay in a heap, 75 yards out at about the 2-o'clock position. About 8pm, I try to start a Foxpro coyote calling sequence, but the dang unit must have shut off, due to the delay.

So, I leave the rifle in the tripod and climb down. I use my thermal scanner to find and walk over to the fox, he's small, barely alive and entire back end is shot out. All I have in my pocket is a .38spl and decide I'll just shoot him with the suppressed .223 when I get back to the tripod. So, I head over to the game call to turn it back on and as I'm turned away from the fox, I hear a swooshing commotion from the fox's direction. I look with the thermal scanner and the fox is gone. I couldn't have been 50' away from it.

Near as I can tell, an owl must have snatched it, no way was it in any shape to run off and there was no decent cover nearby that he could have been hiding in either.

What the heck? Can an owl lift a small fox?

Nothing goes to waste.

Last time I got robbed - a roadrunner snatched the tassel off my foxpro, and took off!
I found it about 20 yards away - guess it was unpalatable!

An Great Horned owl could lift a small fox. Around towns Great Horned owls often kill housecats and little fluffy house dogs. A Coyote could dash in there behind you and snatch that fox away in a heartbeat also.

That's what I'm thinking, either an owl or coyote snatched it. When I shot the fox, it gave a good brief cry out, so maybe a nearby coyote came-a-running. It was probably 15-20 minutes from the time I shot the fox, until I climbed out of the tripod to fix the caller. I was walking around with a green LED cap light tending to the nearby game call when it happened. I'm surprised something was bold enough to charge/swoop in with me so close. I walked around the whole area this morning to try to piece together what actually happened. No idea.

We had a neat trail cam video of some type of bird (assume an owl) rolling a red fox walking down a trail. Fox stands back up and looks around like "what was that?" Need to see if I can find it.

My guess it was not an owl. Owls' flight feathers are soft making them silent in flight so it is very unlikely one will hear them. It is one of the unnerving characteristics of the animal. A Great Horned Owl is also a fairly wary creature and the nearness of the poster tends to speak against that possibility.

A very large Great Horned Owl will run a bit under 5# and the bird's body weight is pretty much the upper limit of what it can carry. I've come across GHOs on rabbit and skunk kills where the birds made threats at me rather than attempt to carry their quarry off. As the quarry nears the body weight of the bird, the balance and hold of the quarry becomes more and more important in the bird's ability to fly. It takes a bit of trial and error adjusting for the bird to get a proper grip which is one reason the Owls threatened me rather than leave with their prey.

I'm not saying it can't possibly be an owl, just that my experiences with them make me lean away from it. The size of the prey, it's condition, and the nearness of the poster make me hesitant to affirm that supposition. A GHO can be pretty fearless/reckless after choosing its prey but this scenario seems a lttle more than I would expect.

Here's a funny follow up. I went out last night in the same general area as before, where I shot the fox.

I set the game call (Foxpro Shockwave w/ woodpecker decoy) up about 65 yards in front of me. I sat there scanning the surrounding pasture with my thermal bino's, when I heard a "whoosh" from the direction of the game call. I think the game call was silent at this point, having just completed a Foxcast sequence.

I scanned with the thermal and I see something fairly large on the ground, about 15 feet to the right of the call, but I can't figure out what the heck it is. I keep watching it and I'm starting to convince myself that maybe it's a jackrabbit. Suddenly, it takes flight and roosts on a dead tree 28 yards away, the silhouette showing that it was obviously a large owl. I actually took a couple of cool thermal pictures of it, that I'm still trying to figure out how to get downloaded off the thermal bino's.

Anyway, a short time later I busted a coyote stalking across the top of the dam I'm sitting at and the hunt was over. When I went to retrieve the game call, the woodpecker decoy was missing and I found it on the ground 15 feet away where the owl had been sitting. It was a little tattered and he pulled the little plastic grommet out, where it attaches to the wire whip, but I was able to salvage it.

Maybe the other weeks fox adventure really was an owl stealing it.

I'm going out again tonight in the same general area. We'll see what adventures unfold.