TRAIL CAM PIC

I see bobcats quite regularly while working.  They have HUGE paws compared to Felix there. 

I've handled owls of that size.  They are very light in weight.  I doubt it could pick up a cat.  More likely is that cat made a leap at that owl, missed it and is on his way back down as the owl flys away. 
Just my guess....

Thanks for that photo Tote!  Reminds me to set up my game camera out back.  The dogs have been alerting on something out there the past couple nights from within the house and what ever it is, isn't afraid of them and they won't go out to chase it.  Ha!!

I agree. That cat looks to be in mid twist from being dropped upside down.

 

  Wow, This past weekend (Sun) I went to "Columbia river gorge Discovery museum" up here in Oregon, The Dalles.  While there attended a "Live bird of prey" talk.  In the talk, 2 birds was shown, a Kestrel, and a grumpy female great horned Owl.  The docent held the birds and talked about them.  While holding the Owl, he explained that the owl, weighing in at about 4lbs, could lift prey 2/3's it's body weight, and that it's talons are 25 times more powerfull than our own hands.  They can apply about 300pounds/sq inch of power, and sometimes simply crush the heads of their prey!  I knew the talons were strong, but this is crazy.
   He went on to say that if you hear a great horned owl hooting around your home, you might want to thing about keeping puddy cat's inside.  He mentioned that the great horned is a "bull dog" and pretty much can tackle everything on the ground up to and including bobcats! Skunks are no problem as they have no olfactory sensens (Can't smell a thing)
  So, in the picture above, the puddy was close to being dinner!

Cool pic in any case.  I can at least hope that kitty was invited to (be) dinner. 

Lord knows we need another brood of Great Horned owls more than we need another litter of cats.

Great pic! I had a couple of cats go missing without a trace, come to find out it was the hawks!

Mike - do you know where that pic is from?  Cool pic, but also an interesting story with that owl.

Looks like a barred owl, not a great horned owl.  They are getting alot of press lately in wildlife conservation circles.  They are native to the eastern US.  In the last 30-40 years or so they have spread their range across the upper Great Plains into the Pacific NW and south into Calif as far as Marin Co on the coast.  No one is sure what triggered the range expansion but it is thought that tree planting associated with settlement of the upper Great Plains eventually facilitated them to hop-scotch across.  A number of other western and eastern bird species now hybridize in this zone as well. 

Barred owls are related to spotted owls but are bigger, more aggressive and they appear to out-compete spotted owls, and have replaced spotted owls in many parts of their range in WA, OR and NW CA.  For example, Redwood National Park in Nor Cal used to have around 30 pairs of northern spotted owls that have been replaced by barreds.  It's a hot conservation debate now as there are trials proposed to remove (shoot) barreds to test control measures in a few experimental areas, but it's controversial with many groups for many reasons as you can imagine.  In the Sierra Nevada, barred owls have been slowly colonizing the northern Sierra on the Plumas and Tahoe National Forests, with a few records from other National Forests.  In 2012, five barred owls were detected from the southern Sierra, indicating they are expanding their range south and will become more of a threat to the California sub-species of spotted owl in the Sierra Nevada.

So, an interesting picture, be interested to know if it is from California, and where.

A few ID photos.
Pic 1 - Barred owl in flight
Pic 2 - Barred owl perched
Pic 3 - Great horned owl perched

Thanks for posting the cool pic Mike!

John, that's very interesting info on the displacement of the spotted by the barred.

I'll see if I can relocte the photo and if they have any info about it. No promises but I'll give it a try.

Here are some other really cool trail cam pics from F&S:  http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/gallery/hunting/2012/04/best-2012-spring-trail-cam-contest-round-i  They have tons of photo submissions on this site here: http://www.fstrailcamcontest.com/

Forget the neighborhood cats....Watch the KIDS! 

Video-


News Link-
http://dailycaller.com/2012/12/19/amazing-video-shows-massive-golden-eagle-snatching-toddler-almost-from-montreal-park-video/

Forget the neighborhood cats....Watch the KIDS! 

Man, this deserves its own thread - that was amazing! 

Of course, glad the little one was okay.  Good thing he had that little beanie on.

Can you imagine dad having to explain to his wife about the disappearance of their child.  "Uh, honey, today while I was out on the golf course ... "

Trail cams are so neat


Sent from my iPhone 4S using Tapatalk

Sorry not a golden eagle.
So I think video is fake.
However I do agree explaining to wife that kid got scooped up by a bird would suck. Then the drug test and so on and so forth

Sorry for the thread jack but I couldn't resist.

Oh! Hahahahahahhhh!!!!!!

So I think video is fake.

I want to believe that it's authentic, but if it is bogus, those are some amazing editing skills!