Nighttime Owl Attack on Lolo Osprey Caught on Film

At the end of March, KGVO News reported on a possible bird fight in Lolo featuring Harriet the Osprey and a great-horned owl that had been trying to take over her nest. Well, since that time, Harriett returned for the spring and things had been going just fine… until tragedy occurred early Monday. Dunrovin Ranch owner Suzzanne Miller explains.

"We thought oh that's good there won't be any problems with that," said Miller. "Then things were going humpity bucks for Harriette. Her new mate Hal showed up and everybody was feeling really good. Then the night before last, somebody on the east coast alerted me to the fact that Harriette was asleep on her perch and boom she was hit by this owl and knocked off completely."

Suzzanne says that Harriette wasn’t killed in the attack, but she is very worried that the worst could happen any night.

"This could be a fatal issue for her," Miller said. "I have a friend who is a wildlife biologist who worked in Glacier National Park and he reported that they had found a decapitated bald eagle that they suspected had been hit by a great-horned owl. Great-horned owls are really fierce predators."

After watching Harriette for six years, Miller says she is rooting for the osprey to win this territorial struggle, but says she won’t try to intervene in any way.