Owl looking for a chicken dinner........

About 2am on a cold night in Nov 2005, we heard a commotion coming from our chicken coop.  The dogs were barking and the chickens were flying out of the coop door, which is the size of a doggie door.  Steve went out to see what it was, expecting to find a coyote or fox.  He found a huge owl had flown into the chicken coop, looking for a chicken dinner.  But once he got in there, it was having trouble getting out.  The owl was surprisingly docile; allowing us to pick him up to remove him.  We checked him out to ensure it wasn't injured in some fashion and there appeared to be nothing wrong except for his beak was scratched up a bit.  So we let him go and he simply flew off.  We see him around occasionally and hear him and his buddies at dusk all the time.  But to our knowledge, he's never tried again to get a chicken dinner by flying through the coop door.

Click on the picture to the right to see more photos.