Owl grabs fish from my pond

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Parley said:
A group of crows is called a murder.
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A murder ( a large flock) of crows are mobbing ( action, as to what they are doing ) the owl :) Blue Jays are known to mob owls along with the crows as well. Just yesterday while doing our yearly Christmas bird count with my Audubon group, there were a dozen crows making a racket. I told the guy with the big camera the crows were mobbing an owl. He did not believe me since we were in the middle of town. I told him to get his camera ready and I walked closer to the crows. Within a few second a great horned owl flushed from the pine tree. He thanked me later for getting some great flight shots of the owl :)
 
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Parley said:
I have a video of the crows lined up on the power line behind my house to attack the Snowy Owl. I have another video I will post later of the crows dive bombing the owl.

https://youtube.com/shorts/QQ3Aq0rZFng?
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This reminds me of the scene in Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 movie "The Birds". It was the scariest movie I'd ever seen at that time.
 
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Terri Underhill said:
OMG lucky you! Snowy owls are rare in California. It needs to be documented. Yours looks like a female. About every five years or so there is an irruption of Snowy's. When there is a baby boom of lemmings, more young snowy owls survive causing them to migrate south from Canada for more food.
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Well Terri, the Snowy owl is back and so are the Audubon people. You are right, it is extremely rare to see one this far South, if ever. The last few nights he has been on house roofs a street over from me. There is a constant flow of bird watchers with their cameras. In fact he/she made the local newspaper. According to these people the last sighting of one was over a 100 years ago in Central Park, NY as the Southern most point.

Edit: He may have never went away except to eat, as he/she has been spotted in the neighborhood from time to time by other neighbors.
 
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Parley said:
Well Terri, the Snowy owl is back and so are the Audubon people. You are right, it is extremely rare to see one this far South, if ever. The last few nights he has been on house roofs a street over from me. There is a constant flow of bird watchers with their cameras. In fact he/she made the local newspaper. According to these people the last sighting of one was over a 100 years ago in Central Park, NY as the Southern most point.

Edit: He may have never went away except to eat, as he/she has been spotted in the neighborhood from time to time by other neighbors.
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I'm sorry but I had to document your sighting since it was a great photo leaving no doubt of it being a snowy. The friend I first told about it said never in her life time would she see one. So I sent your photo. In the birding world when there is a bird you have never seen it is called a lifer. Die hard birders are known to go over a 1000 miles to get a dependable lifer. By now there should have been over 200 birders to see your snowy. You have no idea how happy your owl has made people. It is probably known as the Parley snowy since that is the only info they had. Hope you have a happy new year.
 
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Terri Underhill said:
I'm sorry but I had to document your sighting since it was a great photo leaving no doubt of it being a snowy. The friend I first told about it said never in her life time would she see one. So I sent your photo. In the birding world when there is a bird you have never seen it is called a lifer. Die hard birders are known to go over a 1000 miles to get a dependable lifer. By now there should have been over 200 birders to see your snowy. You have no idea how happy your owl has made people. It is probably known as the Parley snowy since that is the only info they had. Hope you have a happy new year.
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Thank You Terri for the reply. When I went on my early morning walk today, I saw maybe 12-15 people in the neighborhood. I did not think too much about it at the time. I normally see maybe 0-3 people out walking around. Now I know why. Hahahaha. They were out scouting the neighborhood looking for the owl. They finally found it. I noticed that he likes to be on a roof top with something behind him for protection. Could be a roof vent or a raised chimney screen. Some are speculating that he/she came into the Los Angeles harbor on a ship or maybe he/she got loose from somewhere like someone's cage. The owl is so far South from its normal range that they think the owl had help getting to this part of the country. Thank you for alerting me to how rare it is to see the Snowy Owl this far South.
 
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Parley said:
Thank You Terri for the reply. When I went on my early morning walk today, I saw maybe 12-15 people in the neighborhood. I did not think too much about it at the time. I normally see maybe 0-3 people out walking around. Now I know why. Hahahaha. They were out scouting the neighborhood looking for the owl. They finally found it. I noticed that he likes to be on a roof top with something behind him for protection. Could be a roof vent or a raised chimney screen. Some are speculating that he/she came into the Los Angeles harbor on a ship or maybe he/she got loose from somewhere like someone's cage. The owl is so far South from its normal range that they think the owl had help getting to this part of the country. Thank you for alerting me to how rare it is to see the Snowy Owl this far South.
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Your owl did not have help getting to CA. About every 5 years we gat them in OK. One year we had 11 in our state. I hope to photograph one if one arrives here. I'd love to see a male, they are solid white. Just beautiful with their golden eyes. Here's a male snowy in flight. Now that the word is out, there should be more owls noticed. Owls like to have the highest perch in the area. So whom ever has the highest roof should get the most activity. I just hope some idiot doesn't shoot her/ him. Yours is either a female or imm male. The female is noticeably larger than the male.
 

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WOW! Thank you for the picture. You are correct in the high perch area. So far, the owl has perched on the high point of two-story houses. I have a single story, so I am safe. Hahahahaha The owl also seems to like having something at its back. Getting ready for my morning walk and I will also keep an eye out for the Audubon people out looking for the owl. So far, he has not perched on the same house twice that I know of.
 
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