Eagle Owl near Oban

[ally mac]

I was told today one of the local Game Keepers reckons theres an Eagle Owl not far from town. I had to lock the birds down last year due to the falcon but havent had trouble this year round the loft. Maybe coincidence but it makes me wonder.

 

Al.

[naedoos]

Fancy hirin it oot?  

[ally mac]

[frank-123]

hope the owl has a mate

[ally mac]

If I could catch it it would go in the auction  

[jimmy white]

I was told today one of the local Game Keepers reckons theres an Eagle Owl not far from town. I had to lock the birds down last year due to the falcon but havent had trouble this year round the loft. Maybe coincidence but it makes me wonder.

 

Al.

 

there are a few eagle owls about both north of the border and south of the border [not down mexican way though ;D] these birds are usually in pairs [which i hope] im in no doubt that this would be the reason for "no falcon attacks" this year,,,again the old adage of the rspb ,,if they are born here in the wild they are native to brittain and  have the same protection as any other bird of prey,, but if they are escapees they do not have this protection ,,,,,,talk about catch 22 ??

[ally mac]

Lets hope they are the reason Jimmy.

 

Al.

[THE FIFER]

was there not something along with a photo of an eagle owl around edinburgjh in the papers last week

[jimmy white]

Fancy hirin it oot?  

 

these can be bought quite easy from the likes of " the cage and aviary,mag " for around £100

[jimmy white]

here is the eagle owl ,which will not tollerate any birds of prey anywhere near their nesting site [which have the same sort of nesting sites as the perigrine ] just like any other owl they will come out at dusk ,, this is when they will kill any roosting perigrine , their main diet is rabbit , which are plentyfull

[jimmy white]

and here is a tame one ,,,just to give you an idea of their size , which is often  exaggerated    lovely birds   

[jimmy white]

was there not something along with a photo of an eagle owl around edinburgjh in the papers last week

 

i would like to think so,, must find that one out   will check papers  

[jimmy white]

 

Sure you werent thinking of the seagulls you seem to be having problem with  ;D ;D ;D

 

http://uk.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUKLM66869920080825

 

i remember this one rose, ;D, they were  nesting on the chimneys in musselburgh and [so called] attacking passer byes    thats the papers for you ;D  but they were sort of dive bombing people , but swerving off ,,,",not excactly attacking them" ;D,,,this is exactly what we dont want in any reports on eagle owls,, but there was,  a good few years ago [wish i could find it] a picture of a sparrow hawk , in the front page  of the edin, evening news ,killing a pigeon ,,,in front of all  the passer byes ,,,,this was in cockburn street in the city centre

[Guest IB]

Well the original BBC programmes on the Yorkshire pair did say they were breeding in the wild in Scotland too.  

 

The programmes also said that while their main prey was rabbit, they take other birds of prey too. I put this piece of news up on another website. So far it has been met with total silence.  

 

You see, perhaps the most interesting thing about eagle owls is that they are experts at intraguild predation: in other words, very very good at killing other raptors, and in fact at virtually eliminating them from an area. They routinely take Long-eared owl Asio otus, Goshawk Accipiter gentilis, Sparrowhawk A. nisus, Peregrine Falco peregrinus, Gyrfalcon G. rusticolus, Merlin F. columbarius and Rough-legged buzzard Buteo lagopus. More exceptional are cases of predation on Snowy owls Bubo scandiaca (note: no longer in its own genus), young White-tailed eagles Haliaeetus albicilla, and other eagle owls. Everett (1977) wrote that ‘up to 5% of [eagle owl] total prey may consist of other birds of prey and … these may make up as much as 36% of all the bird food consumed in some regions’ (p. 93). It seems that eagle owls take these birds while they are roosting, mostly (I assume) by sneaking up on them from behind. In fact, so significant are eagle owls on other raptors that some populations of Long-eared owls appear to migrate specifically because of eagle owl predation (Erritzoe & Fuller 1998.)

 

http://darrennaish.blogspot.com/2006/02/eagle-owls-take-over-britain.html