Owls: Not Just for Message-Sending

Recently, cross-country skiers enjoying trails in the Rolland F. Perry City Forest in Bangor, Maine have been coping with a territorial and surprisingly aggressive Great Horned Owl. While the skiers enjoy the peace and natural beauty of the forest at night, with its unusually clean trails and scenic vistas, the local resident owls don't really feel inclined to share. Over the course of three weeks or so, at least eight skiers and the occasional very surprised dog have been, apparently, rousted as trespassers by a more than-somewhat annoyed Great Horned owl. According to skier Jim Allen of Bangor, last Tuesday.

"I'm coming down out near the railroad bed. It's dark," Allen said. "I've got my headlamp on, and all of a sudden, I felt a whack in the back of my head and this stinging and I understood what everybody else was talking about."

The Great Horned Owl is the largest owl native to Maine. Given that they are particularly cranky during their mating and breeding cycles, and that there have now been numerous incidents in Bangor, as well as in nearby Orno, state fish and game officers have begun posting warning signs.

Great Horned Owls are earliest nesting birds in Maine, and it is not at all unreasonable to assume that they might be nesting in March. They are the largest Maine owl, second in size only to the Great Snowy Owl. Great Horned Owls have large feet and flesh-piercing claws. Its wings are quite long and very broad, with the average wingspan for males at roughly 52.6" and for females 56.3". They are, in many ways, ideal predators, with keen eye sight and night vision, and wings designed to allow them to glide silently, and then strike.

I suspect the skiers never heard a thing.