Great horned owl goes swimming in Lake Michigan

December 6, 2014 • 10:40 am

After the fourth reader sent this to me (thanks, all!), I decided I’d better put it up. But I probably would have anyway: though the videos are short, they show some amazing bird behavior, namely a swimming owl (forced into Lake Michigan by peregrines), making its way through the water using its wings as paddles.  And only a few miles away from me! Finally, the story has a happy ending.

The videos have gone viral, with the first one getting over a million views since it was posted December 2.

Yahoo News gives the details:

A great horned owl [Bubo virginianus] went for an unexpected swim in Lake Michigan this week, after two peregrine falcons forced it into the water, according to Chicago birders who saw the territorial skirmish firsthand.

Steve Spitzer, a birder and photographer who lives near Chicago, filmed the owl’s athletic water strokes shortly after the bird entered the lake, he told Chicago stationWGN-TV.

Owls are known for their nearly silent flight, but it’s not unheard of to see one go for a dip, said Julia Ponder, the executive director of The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota. [Daring Duos: Unlikely Animal Friends]

For an owl, “if you go after something in the water, and you accidentally get too wet, then sometimes it’s easier to swim to shore than it is to fly with wet feathers,” Ponder told Live Science.

This was photographed with “a Panasonic GX7 and 100-300mm lens, handheld.”

More info:

Birds are known to use their feathery wings as paddles, but it’s more common to see an eagle than an owl swimming in a river or lake. “They are often in areas near water,” Ponder said. “You have to have those skills.”

But swimming is thought to help great horned owls grab midnight snacks. The owls are known to prey on water birds that roost on the open water at night. “Swimming to shore is a natural and necessary follow-up activity when an owl finds itself having splashed down in the middle of a body of water going after prey,” said Marc Devokaitis, a spokesperson at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in New York.

Once an owl swims to shore, it will typically fluff out its feathers to dry.

“They’ll shake it off,” Ponder said. “They’ll preen a bit. They’ll rouse. They’ll go up into a tree and let their feathers dry.”

The owl on the beach, drying off and resting:

The upshot:

The incident that sparked the Chicago owl’s aqueous escape is also common, Ponder said. Peregrine falcons often prevent other top predators from trespassing into their territory. The clash was likely a way for the peregrine falcons to indicate that “this is my space, and you need to move on,” Ponder said.

The onlookers called a bird rescue team, but the owl flew away before the team arrived, WGN reported.

 

21 thoughts on “Great horned owl goes swimming in Lake Michigan”

    2. The gorilla is reputed to be unable to swim, but I haven’t found a reliable reference.

      2. Whoops, posted twice somehow.
        Gorillas and other great apes apparently can be taught to swim, but it is not easy.
        Also armadillos are said to not be able to swim, but I do not know if that is true. It seems to me they would be pretty buoyant.
        Hippos, oddly enough, do not swim as much as walk on the bottom. But I expect they can swim in a sort of ‘sinking while running’ kind of way.

        1. I don’t know about gorillas and bonobos, but I’m fairly certain most chimps and orangutangs can swim if pressed.

          1. I read in a book, Almost Chimpanzee, that chimpanzees, at least, seem to have a hard time swimming, and easily sink and drown in water if they end up in it. I don’t know about being pressed to swim, but in the book, the chimpanzee did have incentive.

          2. Hmm, I remember reading about it back in my zookeeper days where we discussed the practice of water as a barrier in chimp enclosures. It was up for debate because some animals didn’t mind a swim although they weren’t exactly built for it.

            I guess some do, and some don’t. 🙂

  2. That owl looks ticked off! The Peregrines were lucky the Wol didn’t make a meal of them! Last week I heard a pair of B. virginianus duetting outside my bedroom window; the male making the classic “Who-who-who-who-who-WHO!” call and the female making a breathy screech immediately after or just before the male finished his call. Apparently, they lay eggs in the winter, and they were establishing their territory. I’ve heard this guy for many years, assuming it’s the same one since they’re long-lived, and I hope to hear him for many more. You can hear what I heard at the Cornell site here:
    http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/great_horned_owl/sounds

    1. He looks more like he is too dignified to admit that he is pissed off. “Yeah, I meant to go in the water, now move along; nothing to see here!”

    1. My dad once saw a cat in his neighbourhood trying to stalk an owl & the owl was just keeping an eye on it. I don’t think anyone got hurt but I think kitty would have gotten a shock if he had kept stalking the owl.

  6. Nice that one observer got such excellent footage of the owl, during & post- swim.

    Compared to the vids of eagles swimming, this owl seems much more laid back–slower strokes, less splashing. Also seems to get more distance per flap.

    I imagine birds have a lot of buoyancy going for them, what with the hollow (well, spongy) bones & all.

  7. I got descriptions for the two videos.

    First, “Got to swim~”
    second: “Sh*t, I had to swim”

    The videos make me laugh… especially the first one. After all, what’s the difference of paddling water and paddling air? The owl is so much like a human when it paddles the water… Comparing to dogs, owls certainly swim elegantly. :))

  8. :)), watch the second video, the one eye blink of owls depicted in cartoon and cartoon clocks are so true.

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