howdy people just wanted to just have my little say on sometyhing. i live in middlesbrough in north east england and a couple of weeks ago while sat waiting for the bus after work there was a group of people stairing up at the roof of the central pub. thinking they were drunk i ignored it untill the girl i was with asked me what they where doing. me being me wasnt bothered as long as they were doing it way over there away from me i was happy.
it was a few minutes later she asked what was on the lamp post across the street. when i looked there was this huge bird/owl. i didnt realise how big it was till it moved near the end of the lamp post. now im not an expert on owls but it did not look like an owl to me.the girl suggested an eagle but i thought an eagle in middlesbrough hmmmmm i know global warmings a b**** and sharks are heading this way but egale. anyway after telling people at work and getting laughed at i was relived to see on the orange site that theres reports of it on there (i work as an orange tech agent thats how i came across it at wok) http://orange.co.uk/news/quirkies/22983.ht...ewsquirkymonday
just wondered if anyone else knows of this and can tell me what sort of "owl" it is. thank you please

The link you submitted tells you exactly what sort of owl it is.
That is a big bugger.

Well the link you gave describes it as an eagle owl. Here's the wikipedia page on it:

Wikipedia

There's some pictures on there; did it look like that?

I'm from England too, and I've only ever seen one owl in my life. That was one night in the middle of the countryside a few miles from where I live.

Sharks have always been in the UK, so have eagles and you get eagle owls in Northern Germany and they are suspected of being native to the UK anyway none of these things are tropical or even sub-tropical species. Nothing to with global warming here, the weather is from that.

Too bad no one got a picture, because this sounds interesting.

You're very lucky. I've only seen owls in captivity. I've heard them though.

I have, though, seen pheasants in the wild in Wales. It seemed that they'd never seen humans before.



You're absolutely right. Basking sharks, mako sharks and blue sharks can all be found around the UK, as well as your bog-standard dogfish and rays. Golden eagles are now confined to Scotland though, so unless it decided to venture south it wasn't an eagle. It was, as has already been said, an eagle owl.

Quirkies: Owl terrorises Middlesbrough

A giant owl is terrorising shoppers and drinkers in Middlesbrough town centre.

The bird, capable of taking foxes and small deer, launches itself off high roofs and swoops on passers-by, reports The Sun.

The eagle owl, which has a 5ft wingspan, set up home on the roof of Middlesbrough train station in September - but turned nasty over Christmas.

Craig Smith told how the bird swooped on him from behind as he ran through the station car park to catch a train.

He recalled: "I heard a loud woo-woo noise and looked over my shoulder to see this creature with silver wings, claws stretched out.

"I ran as fast as I could on to the platform and it flew away. On Christmas Eve I saw it go for a man coming out of a pub and chase him down the street."

Another victim dad-of-four Mark Fryett, 40, said: "I was leaving work when I heard a hoot and a whoosh and saw this big white face coming at me. I put my arm up and hit its wing and it fell on the floor, but got up again and flew off.

"I was really shaken up. It was like something out of Harry Potter - I thought it was going to pick me up! I went home and called police, but I think they thought I was drunk."

Rachael Stewart, of the Kirkleatham Owl Centre in Redcar, North Yorks, said: "We think it must have escaped from a travelling show.

"Volunteers have tried to catch it a couple of times. It's not dangerous to people but it will have to hunt to survive. It could easily kill a cat or small dog."

That is a big owl

Eagle owls are big owls, the biggest in fact.

I saw an eagle owl last summer at a falconry place. It was beautiful but did make me feel a bit worried when it stared directly at me with it's big rusty eyes.

I always find bird eyes to be disconcerting, they have a madness to them. I saw a bald eagle at a falconry in Germany glare at a child continously for 20 minutes, I' sure it wanted to eat him.

Here is a photo of it perching at the town's Chamber of Commerce, in Exchange Square.

Lovely creatures. Very majestic.

Spot-bellied Eagle-owl, also known as Devil Bird

Must be a bit freaky meeting this fellow in the woods alone at night

You read my mind, my thoughts exactly.

Realizing that most of the posts on this thread come from The UK, I still felt compelled to post. I live in South Carolina and until late last year I had never seen an Owl outside of captivity. Driving home around 11:00pm I encountered an Owl in the center of a two lane road, he was dining on roadkill. I would not have taken it for an Owl had it not sat there and forced me to stop. It absolutely would not move. Only once I was stopped and it glared at me did I recognize it for what it was. It was beautiful and creapy at the same time! I feel blessed to have seen him but was grateful to be in my automobile! He was brazen to say the least!! I believe this one was your standard, run of the mill Owl, I imagine I would have had to change my pants if it had been the Eagle Owl that you all are describing!!

Some hunters in the UK use birds of prey to catch vermin since it's illegal to use dogs, I'd imagine that the eagle owl could be one of the birds used esp for foxes.

I've seen a good sized one on the side of the road here, but I don't know what kind it was. Probably just a barn owl.

No owls are notoriously unreliable for such things. You put the wrong word, it is not hunters it is aristocratic scabs.

Holy hell, I didn't realize wildlife in the UK was so depleted, I mean I know the wolves are gone, and bears and big carnivores all together but wow. No eagles, no owls? I guess living in rural Missouri I forget to appreciate the wildlife, I see owls very often, and eagles perch over the road just outside of town, dozens of them, along the banks of the Mississippi. Also common are raccoons, coyotes, possums, turkeys, quails, foxes, vultures, hawks, bobcats, and deer. Cougars and black bears are sometimes seen too.

We still have barn owls, but the UK also has the lowest percentage of natural land left in any country (1% natural land) We have to many deer with nothing to eat them. We also have the aristocracy who like to kill foxes and smear the blood on their children to celebrate there first hunt.

Rednecks and riffles keep our deer population down around here. I dont see the point in killing foxes though, as they tend to keep rodent populations down. I cant see a world without eagles in my head though, they are about the most amazing animals to observe in the wild

I know, it is sad, one species and we managed to get to the point of it being only in a very small part of the country .

in reply to MATTSHARK when i said sharks are getting closer to england what i meant was sharks as in great white sharks which i know have alwys been near england especially near cornwall but i read that as water temperatures get hotter they are heading more north. if uv ever been to redcar near middlesbrough(i hope u havent. but does appear in a new kiera knightley film which was recorded there alast year) they have regularly had sharks,dolphins and whales turn up along with the odd giant turd of the human variety. as for that owl not seen it again but i havent seen my cat for a few days(GULP)

I have seen an Eagle Owl get angry. I was a show where the local Falconry center were showing thier birds at Castle Fraser in Scotland. A small white dog kept barking at this Eagle Owl chained to a tree stump. This thing was massive. It glared at this dog and gave a massive evil hiss...like something from Alien quite an impressive animal....the dog shutup In Scotland we have Golden Eagles and Buzzards and a variety of falcons, kestrels, hawks etc. So all is not lost

Guy in my course at Uni told me this story about when he worked at a bird sanctuary/falconry centre in Northern Ireland when he was still at home. This cat jumped onto the eagle owl cage and curled up to sleep. The owl flew up, thrust its talons through the mesh and pulled the cat into the enclosure. It ate the cat. Not something you hear every day- the bird catching the cat, eh?



Love owls! Probably my fave birds.


awwwwwwwwwwww

em,thanks for the circle round the owl,i would have never have seen it otherwise

well, that IS what happens if your p***y isn't careful.

I will keep a closer eye on mine.

Especially around eagles, lol.

I love it when little yappy-type dogs get taken down a notch or two...

owls are amazing animals...and sooo cute!

Totally, Frogfish!



not to mention several speices of owls!




So much for the owl and the pussycat, eloping in a pea-green boat, eh? But then again it just goes to show, even owls like to eat p...



Need any help?







what!? I like cats too!





Oh aye, I remember about this time last year there was a whole uproar in the UK about breeding pairs of eagle owls, either escapees or owls flying ovewr from Scandinavia to find a territory. It was in BBC Wilflife magazine and on the news etc. I can find links if anyone's interested...

I remember in 3rd or 4th grade, someone came from the zoo with a bunch of birds, inlcuding an owl. I was very excited, but soo disapointed to learn that the owl is one of the dumbest birds, and all that time i thought they were smart

Owls!? DUMB!? I won't have it! No they are intelligent birds! Well... smarter than chickens, probably. But then dogs are pretty stupid.

fits the discription. it may live in germany, but birds are always being found in places they aen't supposed to. i have seen european swans here on the mississippi in Wisconsin. AND DOGS AIN'T DUMD @$$HOLE!!!

we have tons of birds here sinci i live on the mississippi flyway. great for duck hunting. i don't know why people make such a big deal about bald eagles, i can't go two frigin feet without seein one!! i also have alot of hawks and some owls. falcons/ kastrels too. sometimes in the summer i'lln here em when i ave my window open, or get jolted awake when i am just falling asleep camping by the call of a loon, eerie calls they are, especially in the woods when everything else is quiet and the sun has just set; the sky barelt lit, you are just dozing off with the fire dying down the ambers, and than BAM!! you get the crap scared outa yah by some loon out on the lake. then the next day when your fishin in your canoe and one pops up right next to your boat, you feel the strong urge to whop the damn thing with your paddle. normall i just hit em with my bobber ot sinker, but theres those times...

Wow! I had no idea...that's as big a span as a female Harpy.

Meow.

Went to get a few cds from Virgin Megastores in Middlesbrough town centre this afternoon, and the giant Eagle Owl has made a return and was keeping an eye on things lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gSp902yuJA

I used to live on an island in Washington State and we had some seriously big birds out there, including Eagle Owl (or we called 'em horned owls). Those owls would raid the Blue Heron rookery next to the house at all god-awful hours of the night... the ruckus was almost intolerable. Cranes screaming (and herons aren't exactly small), owls shreeking... sounded like the woods were full of banshees. haha. On occasion, we'd get dive bombed by them and the neighbors had a tendency to keep any small pets indoors.

If I had to guess, that owl you have there terrorizing shoppers, is probably protecting a nest and there's probably a mate around somewhere. Birds of all kinds will get extremely aggressive right before egg laying until chicks are fledged.

I don't know that I'd call Owls "dumb" per se, but I would be comfortable saying that they're probably less bright than most other raptors. Even Bald Eagles aren't that bright... sure, they're majestic in flight, they're regal looking, they're a joy to watch fishing, but the reality is ... they're also what I'd term "garbage" birds... like ravens, they'll eat anything dead, and they'll be happy to string the contents of your trash can all over your neighborhood while squabbling with each other over a choice pizza crust. Typically baldies are solitary birds, but get enough of a population in one area, a choice garbage can, and you'll see a bunch of them together. In fact, 4 or 5 of them together in a feeding frenzy can be kind of scary.... They're HUGE.

I live in Indonesia and here we have many owls, especially because my home is on the suburbs/rural border. Here, some farmers really do have pet owls. At night, they'll hunt down mouse and rodents and almost any pest to the ricefield.

Anyway, owls in Indonesian is 'burung hantu (read: booroong haantoo)' which means "Ghost Bird". Cool name eh?

I can't remember when it was, but a Griffon Vulture flew off during a demonstration at Eagle Heights one year (his name was Harold ) and flew around Kent.

Two metre wingspand bird flying around kent and the london boarder would have been MOST amusing.



EDIT: Oh, and this eagle owl was probably a case of a similar story was my point. The birds are found native in Europe, though.

gee, Poor Harold is so ugly that he's almost cute!

Now that is a cool owl

Hi people.
I was coming home last night/early this morning about 3-4am after a night out at the Cornerhouse.
I was with some people walking home on Albert Road.
I could hear a noise that sounded like someone humming behind me.
I thought it was a person and I kept looking back.
When I asked the people I was with who was making that noise someone pointed up to a shop sign on which was this massive owl.
It stared me straight in the eyes and bobbed its head forward every time it hummed.
I was amazed it look so surreal.
It had something tied to its claw (think it was left claw. It looked like a white cloth with bits of red on it (maybe blood, not sure)).
I have to point out I was wrecked (was drinking double Jack Daniels and Coke all night).
I felt like me and the owl were making a connection on a higher level, if you know what I mean.
I stood there holding out my arm to try and encourage it to come down so that we could have a chat.
I hadn't heard of this owl before.
But later realised the people I was walking with were petrified of this owl as some of their friends had been attacked.
Apparently it had tried grabbing them and lifting them up.
While I was looking at it trying to converse with it, it flew up across the other side of the street and swooped round again and then perched itself on top of a roof back on my side of the street.
This disappointed me as I wanted it to come closer.
I saw a can of coke on the street.
I emptied the contents and then tried to chuck the empty can at it so that it would come back down (I wasn't trying to hurt it btw).
I have to remind you I was pissed (drunk).
Obviously an empty can of coke is not going to reach the top of a tall building.
I then gave up and carried on my way home.
Oh I forgot to mention I thought it was a good enough sight that I should try and capture it on my mobile phone camera.
So I tried taking a few videos of it.
But being drunk and/it being a new phone when I checked earlier today my phone did not have these videos stored.
I feel so gutted.
Has anybody else seen it lately?
Has anybody else take decent pics or clips of it?
I have seen the vids shown earlir in this thread, but it just seemed that when I saw the owl it looked a lot bigger than the one in the clips I have seen so far.
Could it be part of a family?

It just could be an owl with gigantism disorder.

hi there
I have had a really scarey experience with the owl in middlesbrough
It was Sat night early hours sun morning when myself and partner were walking from the captin cook along towards the albert bridge to get a taxi, when i heard a wooo noise, being in good spirit i thought it would be funny to copy it, not knowing if it was a person messing about or a bird, the noise happened again and again with me copyin it then all of a sudden a very very large bird came swooping from the sky trying to land on my back, at the time it was really scarey, i just started running for my life screaming my head off, my partner couldnt stop laughing, I kept running until i saw a police van parked up, i explained what had happened but he thought it was funny to. Now when i look back it was really funny but at the time i thought i was a gonner!!
what an experience[size="4"][/size]

I love how in every story they say myself and my partner. I also enjoy the fact that this wonderfull story was his first post