SILENT FLIGHT

I slept right through the over-night presence of this feathered raptor but he left his calling card on the patio as he flew by.
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This is a secondary flight feather from the right wing of a Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus).  You'll notice the fluffy edges to the feathers...this is what the enables silent flight of owls.  The feather doesn't have that hard edge that hawk feathers do and that's what makes the whistling sound in most bird wings as they fly by.  The fluff mutes the sound and makes them virtually silent.  I never heard it.
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Dunno what he was hunting but I haven't seen Thumper today....the local Cotton-tailed Rabbit.  But I didn't see any Thumper remains either.  Perhaps he heard a skunk (Mephitis mephitis) which are often seen at night digging up lawn grubs.  But I didn't see any remains of Cologne (the local skunk) either.  Great Horned Owls are one of the only predators on skunks as they don't have much of a sense of smell.  You can add coyotes, bobcats and foxes to the mix (they do have a good sense of smell and have to be pretty hungry to take a skunk) but that's about it around here.  Hungry cougars will take them as well but we don't have many cougars around here...only the occasional one passing through.
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Best in Large.