Eagle Owl spotted in Sunderland

[dales birder]

A few years ago a lady was walking her terrier in fields outside Leeds when an Eagle Owll tried to carry the terrier away.The dog naturally struggled and was dropped but needed stitches.It was later revealed the owl was an escapee from a local collection and was recaptured.The way this was reported in the press you would have thought the whole population of the village were going to be attacked in their beds.

[dales birder]

The Sunderland bird has just featured on the local (North East ) news,apparently it has been in the area for over a year and was filmed by some locals.It ha not been claimed as a wild bird but as an escapee from a collection.There was also some library footage of the dales breeding birds that Mac mentioned earlier on in this thread.

[RoyW__]

An article about this bird can be read here.

The article seems very reasonable to me, and largely sticks to the facts (though it seems that they couldn't resist mentioning the possibility that the owl might have taken cats as prey).
A website that campaigns for raptor protection (with links to the facebook group mentioned by Dave) disagrees though, I guess because the story doesn't fit with their predetermined ideas:
"...but be warned the article contains a lot of journalistic licence most of which is not factual. For instance the rediculas claim eagle owls can kill large animal such as deer which of course is complete rubbish. The next thing someone will be claiming is they have witnessed an eagle owl carrying off a baby! Why must everyone automatically believe any eagle owl they see in the natural environment is an escapee? Isn’t it just possible to be a bird which originated and fledged from a nest in the wild? After all it was only a few years ago one of the 2007 fledglings from the Bowland nest was found dead south of Edinburgh."
Deer have been recorded as having been taken as prey by Eagle Owls (admittedly small deer, usually the fawns of smaller species), and the reasons for the assumption that this particular owl is an escape are explained very well in the article.
Although the raptor website campaigns for many very valid causes they are certainly not adverse to use "journalistic licence", and statements that are "not factual" in their own articles to gain support for their views - and personally I have no doubt that they would actually gain far more support if they tried to leave out their obvious biased and incorrect claims from what they write.

[dales birder]

The press article is on a similar vein to the BBC news article and could have been hyped up a lot worse if the tabloids had got onto it.The raptor web site you mention is as usual very one sided in most of its articles but always worth a look as they do seem quick with the news.
At least the Owl articles do not ridicule birders like sometimes happens when we are made to look ridiculous.

[jcw3456]

Within the local area there was a man who kept an eagle owl in Newcastle whether it's that one I don't know, couldfind out it's not far from where I live.