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Barn Owl pair attacked by Raven(s)

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Subject: Barn Owl pair attacked by Raven(s)
From: (Russell Woodford)
Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 22:54:10 +1000
A friend who lives on the Geelong Grammar Corio campus rang me on the weekend 
to say she had a dead Barn Owl in her back yard.  Unfortunately, by the time I 
got the message the bird had been buried.  My friend thought it had been killed 
by a cat, as there were major chest injuries.

Tonight she rang again to say that her son had seen a Barn Owl being harrassed 
by a Raven yesterday - after the first one was buried, and in much the same 
place.  It seems like we've had a pair of Barn Owls there for a little while  - 
I saw one a couple of hundred meters from their house about 3 weeks ago. Only 
one raven was seen attacking the owl yesterday.  It seemed to be attacking the 
chest area. The boy chased the raven off, and the owl flew away as well.

Is it unusual for single Little Ravens to attack Barn Owls, and has a fatal 
attack been recorded before?
Of course, it is not certain that the first owl was killed by a raven, and a 
mob may have been present at that attack. I would have thought a Barn Owl 
capable of defending itself against a raven, and why did these birds hang 
around.  Is it possible they were nesting?  There was no Barn Owl nesting 
record for this part of Victoria during the last Atlas period.  What else would 
make a Barn Owl hang around to be attacked by other birds?

---
Russell Woodford
Geelong VIC
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