Meeting A Great Horned Owl

 Three weeks ago while spending a weekend in Trail we had an unusual experience with an owl.  I had gone for a morning walk around our neighbourhood and was walking through one of our two parks in Sunningdale.  I noticed an object close to a fenced yard and as I got closer, thought that it was a pretty good statue of an owl.  The closer I got, the better it looked.  Then it blinked at me and made a hissing sound by opening its beak.  It stared at me with considerable venom.  I gave the owl a fairly good space and it watched me as I moved away.  I told Dave about the experience and he took his bike up to take a look.  Sure enough, the owl was still "on location".   We figured that the owl must be hurt because it was allowing us to get so close.  Dave googled a bird rescue facility and spoke with someone in Delta, BC.  Within 5 minutes of that call, we had a call from Amanda who works with animal rescue facilities and she was prepared to come out to help us capture the owl.  Amanda had a cage for the bird and we were told to bring a blanket or sheet so we could cover the bird.  We returned to "the location" and then I wandered out to the road to wave at Amanda (we had never met) so she would know where to leave her car and meet the owl.  That worked very well and within seconds Amanda and I were walking towards Dave who had been near to the owl.  Then Amanda said, "Isn't that an owl over there on the hillside?"  Sure enough, it was "our" owl.  It had flown there.  What we did discover is that the owl had caught a skunk and had devoured its head.  We figure that the skunk had the opportunity to spray the owl before its death and the owl was probably in recovery, somewhat stunned by the skunks' actions.  We attempted to get close to the owl 4 times as we walked through the park but it would not let us get too near.  There were several crows enjoying the owl's predicament and they were making plenty of noise.  The owl did a good job of ignoring them.   It would fly very low over the ground or it would walk.  It was obviously not injured in a serious way.  Amanda called Delta and she was told to let it go and we did.  Hopefully, it recovered completely.  

I wandered over to the park later that day and saw no sign of the owl or the skunk.  I wonder if the owl came back to get that meal??  I can't imagine something so distasteful, but apparently skunks are often a preferred food of owls.   Who knew?