Some North Bay pet owners are concerned about a bizarre report about a small dog being taken by a large bird in the downtown core of the city last Friday afternoon.
Tracey Truchon operates a North Bay pet finder Facebook site called “Busters Page - Helping North Bay pets get home.”
She says a small dog was taken by a giant bird near Worthington. It was a popular topic on her message board this weekend.
“I found out the dog was black and small the bird had the dog around the ribs and was flying just above the street lights,” said Truchon.
“The bird was flying fast and the people couldn't get a picture but they are certain it was a dog because it was low enough to see.”
Witnesses describe the bird to be brown with a wingspan of an average sized person’s arm span.
Truchon says witnesses found a severed bird claw near the library on the weekend, but no one is sure if its related to this incident.
“Two days before that I got messages about owls in the area and saw a huge white one myself,” said Truchon. “Not sure what type of bird it was though. I asked people in the area to check their yards I case the dog was dropped somewhere. It was originally spotted by the old Bigwoods Sports (Worthington).”
A biologist at Laurentian University who specializes in birds and is an executive member of the Sudbury Ornithological Society (and who is Sudbury.com's resident birding specialist through his monthly column, The Birdman), Chris Blomme said it's highly unlikely the bird in question is an owl.
"There are only two species of birds capable of physically caring the weight of the hypothetical small black dog that is intact," Blomme told BayToday.ca. "In all likelihood, a bald eagle was the bird in question. However, the rare golden eagle is also possible.
"Eagles come in different plumages depending on their age, so an immature bald eagle would not have a white head or tail (but) ... has a wing span of up to a meter and a half or more, within the size described by the witness.
"Within the owl group, only the great horned owl has the capacity due to its weight and talons, to kill a very small dog, and it would not be able to carry the prey any distance."
