My grandmother Baxter knew different. She raised chickens for 60 years and her backyard chicken coup had wire on the top as well as the sides to prevent aerial attacks. Great Horned Owls love to eat chickens!

A case in point is Vana's Pumpkin Land, a popular family spot for Halloween. As the loudspeaker played spooky screams and owl hoots, I asked Vana's husband, Don, if any owls answered the taped calls. A funny look came over his face, the he related how one day he looked on top of his barn and saw dead chickens on the roof. He said a Great Horned Owl killed his birds and then stored them on the roof for a meal later. I told him about my grandmother's coop. This reminded me of a Great Horned Owl's nest at the Kankakee River State Park where three baby owls were in the crotch of an oak tree at the Bluebird parking area. White chicken feathers covered the base of the tree. At a farm on Rt. 102 not far away chickens have the run of the front yard. My grandmother would not have allowed that. She knew about owls.

My cousin Max lives on the farm now, and told me about his 35 pound plus turkeys he was raising. Two of them had been attacked and killed, their heads removed and the gullets eaten. He thought an owl did this.

I thought owls were not town birds until this past January when two Great Horned Owls came to my yard and hooted in the middle of the night. The male said in the higher voice, "who's awake, me too." The female answered in a much deeper tone "me too". And again last month in October, they were back hooting in the trees in the front yard. I'm not sure what brought them here, prey I guess. Rabbits, mice, shrews, night roosting birds, it's hard to say. Our forefathers knew about predators like owls. It seems we are still learning about our natural world

John Baxter