Comments on: Long-eared Owl Found in Taylor County

By: Keith Arnold

Keith Arnold — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 14:25:25 +0000

Laura,

I recently prpared the bird as a specimen for inclusion in the Texas Cooperative Wildlife COllections at TAMU. A female with enlarging ovary, the bird had a broken right humerus and two bad breaks in the cranium. I have no doubt that Jay correctlt called the COD.

Keith

By: Jay

Jay — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:41:58 +0000

I would suspect that the bird was killed by a car. Owls are especially susceptible to auto collisions as the grassy medians of highways are rich with rodents, and favored places to hunt.

By: Lance

Lance — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:42:25 +0000

Just curious on any theories of how it died. Any marks on the owl that might give light?

I’d assume if just natural causes that could be determined by glancing inside. Be interested to know why a rare owl in this area like this died.

By: Linda N.

Linda N. — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:27:25 +0000

A pity the owl didn’t get to live out it’s full life. I once found a barn owl dead on the road–it made me so sad. It’s too bad that they have to go this way.

By: heidi

heidi — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 20:20:13 +0000

Uncle J,
Happy birthday! Sadly, the only live (and uninjured, I suppose) critters are “countable” because part of the sport is being able to ID a critter behaving normally in the wild. Finding the bird is half the challenge, in this case I’d say it came to me. You raise an interesting point though, because one of the coolest birds I’ve never seen (alive) was a Buff-collared Nightjar - it was far more challenging than this owl because there was no body at all, just a pile of feathers. It was probably a better look than I’ll ever have of a live one though. Anyway, hope all’s well with you!
-h

By: Edna

Edna — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 05:19:17 +0000

Wow - it’s lovely - I’m sad that it was a road kill.

By: John Ehlers

John Ehlers — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 23:05:47 +0000

Heidi:
why is the critter “not countable” ??

Uncle John