Owl Decides to Swim

8 December 2014

If you haven’t seen this video yet  …

Do great horned owls swim?  You bet they do if there’s nowhere else to go.

Last week passersby at Chicago’s Loyola Park saw a pair of peregrine falcons chasing a great horned owl away from their territory.  The owl flew out over Lake Michigan but the peregrines kept hammering it.  Eventually their attack forced the owl to ditch in the lake. Only then did the peregrines leave him alone.

Unlike ospreys, owls aren’t built to go airborne directly from the water so the owl swam to get back to shore.  Steve Spitzer captured it on video.

On the beach the owl caught his breath and dried out a bit before flying to a tree down the street.  Sand in wet feathers.  What an embarrassing mess!

That’s the last time this owl goes near Loyola Park!

(videos by peasant1 on YouTube, originally publicized by Fox 6 News)

3 thoughts on “Owl Decides to Swim

  1. That is amazing.

    I remember watching a Coopers Hawk chasing a Kingfisher low over a large pond. As soon as the hawk got close, the Kingfisher would dive into the water but then would quickly take flight again. Then the chase would start all over till the hawk got close and again the quick dive by the Kingfisher. This chase and dive went on four or five times before the hawk decided this isn’t working and gave up. It too was amazing to watch.

    Gene

    1. Aha! Thanks for the correction (which I’ve put in the article). An owl ‘doing the butterfly’ is more fitting. 😉

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