Watch: Mother Owl Takes On Snake—and Wins

[Omaha Steve]

X post in GD

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/05/150514-owl-snake-video-animals-fight/?utm_source=Cornell+Lab+eNews&utm_campaign=42cc5d93ea-Cornell_Lab_eNews_2015_6_10&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_47588b5758-42cc5d93ea-302623569

By Stefan Sirucek, National Geographic
PUBLISHED MAY 14, 2015

To defend her young from an encroaching snake, Dottie the Texas barn owl reacted with extreme prejudice to remove the threat.

In the infrared video, filmed earlier this month at a Texas ranch, the owl was a ghostly sight. And with a second angle showing the snake creeping towards the entrance to her nest full of newborn owlets, it all had the makings of a horror movie.

The footage comes from the Bird Cams project at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which educates people about birds and lets them connect to individual birds through round-the-clock live feeds of species such as red-tailed hawks, albatrosses, ospreys, and, of course, Texas barn owls.

To learn more about Dottie and the recent incident, National Geographic reached out to Charles Eldermire, leader of the Bird Cams project.

FULL info at link. Video: https://www.facebook.com/birdcams/videos/vb.36857797726/10152828707517727/?type=2&theater

Watch this incredible footage of Dottie the female Texas Barn Owl defending her nest against a snake that attempted to enter the nest box!

After all the drama the fourth owlet hatched yesterday, May 7. The owlet is very small and the age gap is great between it and its oldest sibling. There is the possibility that the little one may not survive.

More on bird cams: http://bit.ly/BarnOwl_Survival

[flamin lib]

1. I have screech owls every year in my back yard.

They only weigh a few ounces, much smaller than the squirrels they displace to have a place nest. About the size of a pigeon. One year I saw an adult with a 2 foot rat snake in his talons. All he could do to fly it to the nest but by golly they ate well that night!