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Hi Jane. Owls will surprisingly eat deceased rodents as long as it looks like a rodent and is brown. I had owls snub at white mice. Capturing an owl is indeed stressful for it but I have released countless injured owls that were grabbed and stuffed in a box and driven for many hours with no ill effect. Grabbing a raptor is more of a huge indignity and incredulity for it since it cannot comprehend you are trying to help. Helena. On Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 4:28 PM Jane Stein <[log in to unmask] wrote: > Oh, there's a thought with the mouse corpses. Thanks, Helena. If I can > slog my way through this snow, I may try that, although mice tend to be > deep in their burrows this time of year and not invading my house to be > snapped! In future, maybe I'll put some deceased mice from the late fall > home invasion push in my freezer, but for the next months, the cupboard > will be bare. My next-door neighbor, half a mile down the road, has horses > and surely lots of mice year-round, but she and they go on vacay for the > winter months. The house on the other side is on the market and vacant for > now. Nuts! > > I worry that my doing that, though, would further stress any owl in the > vicinity, which I surely don't want to do. I wouldn't dream of trying to > capture one for that reason alone. Any owl weak enough from near > starvation to allow itself to be captured by an amateur like me, however > well coached, would be impossibly stressed by the experience, I would > think,.and likely not savable anyway, no? > > > > On Sun, 20 Jan 2019 16:14:07 -0500, H Nicolay <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > Hi Jane and all. Under the Vermont fish and wildlife website there is a > > list of raptor rehabilitators. Myself among them are ready to help any > owl > > in need. Please seek advice first from a Rehabber safest way to capture > a > > raptor. I believe their talons exert 600 pounds of pressure per inch. > > Helena Nicolay. North stream wildlife rescue. Monkton. Ps. Whoever snap > > traps mice invading homes, one can always place mice on low tree > branches > > for owls and ravens and crows. > > > > On Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 4:05 PM Jane Stein <[log in to unmask] wrote: > > > >> This kind of snowfall is particularly hard on Barred Owls because they > >> can't dive deep enough to catch a mouse underneath even if they can > hear > >> it > >> clearly through a foot-plus of snow. It will get worse, too, as this > >> snow > >> packs down on itself and gets really impenetrable. I remember one very > >> snowy winter that went on and on and on some years ago when there were > >> barred owls everywhere sitting out on fenceposts and lower tree > branches > >> during the daylight hours, until they were so weak from hunger, they > >> couldn't manage a pounce anyway, and they were falling off dead. > >> Horrible > >> to see, but what can you do? > >> > >> > >> On Sun, 20 Jan 2019 15:36:36 -0500, Eugenia Cooke <[log in to unmask]> > >> wrote: > >> > Large and beautiful barred owl surveying my yard an hour ago. Very > rare > >> > here! No Flickr account. I never see people sending pics on vtbird, > >> > just > >> > links, so won't unless advised it's okay to do so. > >> >