Eagle Owl disturbs football match

[DominicMitchell]

Not sure if this is the best forum in which to post this, but there is some amazing footage of an Eagle Owl stopping play at an international football match between Belgium and Finand (thanks to Arnoud van den Berg for alerting me to this). The owl apparently caused the game, which was being played in Helsinki, to stop for at least half an hour.

It is not known whether the owl had a nest in the stadium structure, but the Belgian commentators suggested this.

The clip has just been uploaded to the recently created Birdwatch blog
(http://birdwatchmagazine.blogspot.com/) - simply scroll down the sidebar to
'Random Bird Videos', click on the screen and the clip should load in a
player at the top of the page.

Enjoy!

[Chris Monk]

Not sure if this is the best forum in which to post this, but there is some amazing footage of an Eagle Owl stopping play at an international football match between Belgium and Finand (thanks to Arnoud van den Berg for alerting me to this). The owl apparently caused the game, which was being played in Helsinki, to stop for at least half an hour.

It is not known whether the owl had a nest in the stadium structure, but the Belgian commentators suggested this.

The clip has just been uploaded to the recently created Birdwatch blog
(http://birdwatchmagazine.blogspot.com/) - simply scroll down the sidebar to
'Random Bird Videos', click on the screen and the clip should load in a
player at the top of the page.

Enjoy!

Welcome to Birdforum Dominic! Hope you find the time to add a few more threads.

Cheers,
Chris

[jacksnipe]

cheers dominic,enjoyed that clip.thanks

[DominicMitchell]

Thanks for the kind comments, Chris and Jack Snipe.

Finding the time to contribute certainly is an issue, but I couldn't resist posting details of this clip. As someone who has searched some fairly wild places in continental Europe for this superb owl, it seems extraordinary to see it perched on goalposts in front of a noisy crowd of thousands of football fans in a major stadium. Apparently the Finnish supporters are chanting "Eagle Owl, Eagle Owl" - clearly a savvy bunch! I wonder how such a commotion would be received were it to take place at Dunsop in Lancs, where Britain's best-watched Eagle Owls currently reside?

By the way, Finland won 2-0, scoring against the Belgians shortly after the owl left the pitch. According to a Finn who responded to this thread on WestPalBirds, the Eagle Owls are indeed nesting somewhere at the stadium, and were also seen there last winter.

Cheers

Dominic

[robinm]

Hi Dominic,

A warm welcome to BirdForum from all the Moderators and Admin. Thanks for posting the link to the owl video.

[DominicMitchell]

Thanks robinm - I have enjoyed reading many threads previously on BirdForum but have only now finally got around to chipping in. I see a have a long way to go to get up to your level of posts :-)

Cheers

Dominic

[gyrfalcon]

Great stuff.. ironic that 30,000 football fans have had better views of Eagle than the silhouettes I have managed despite many evenings searching in about 6 different countries! Was Hyppia playing?! would soften the blow if one of my team's players has it on his list!!

[Xenospiza]

A Finnish comment taken from a Dutch forum...

The game was stopped for 7 minutes because of the owl was sitting on the
field and on the both goals. It also made a couple of "lazy attacks" as you could see on the video.
And the owl is nesting in the stadium. I don't know exactly where but it has
been seen there from winter. The video was in Finnish, but I can tell you that the audience was shouting "huuhkaja, huuhkaja", which means "Eagle Owl, Eagle Owl" while the owl was sitting on the crossbars of the both goals. And all the comments were very humoristic and everyone seemed to enjoy what happened even the coach of Finland Roy Hodgson but maybe not the players. After this episode the owl disappeared, so there were no more troubles (except for Belgium :-).

And once again! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dMBFOiYxT0

Janne Aalto, Parikkala, Suomi-Finland
http://koti. mbnet.fi/caligata

[hannu]

video is available also on the next web link:
http://www.iltasanomat.fi/videot/?cat=1&id=1381452&ap=1
click "toista uudelleen"

[Vectis Birder]

Brilliant! I wish we got a few Eagle Owls at footie games. The most exciting thing I've seen at football is the odd Swallow or two.

[liverpool_bob]

By the way, Finland won 2-0, scoring against the Belgians shortly after the owl left the pitch. According to a Finn who responded to this thread on WestPalBirds, the Eagle Owls are indeed nesting somewhere at the stadium, and were also seen there last winter.

It was ref. Graham Poll's last game.

I reckon the Owl was angry about some of the decisions... though obviously nothing a 3rd yellow card couldn't sort out. :t:

Cheers,
Bob.

[DominicMitchell]

I think the ref at the game is actually Mike Riley, isn't it? At least he's got Eagle Owl on his list now.

Cheers

Dominic

[John Eaton]

Brilliant Dominic, thanks for that.
Could do with one around when England play to brighten up the game.

[nickyb]

This news was also reported on Sky Sports news last night...........excellent!

[McMadd]

"owl Right on the night"...ya gotta love it

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Finland+2+Belgium+0+Owl+right+on+the+night/1135227839042

30 minutes? The video on yer own birdwatch site is only 6 minutes...bit of a clue...but then...journalists...huh!

[liverpool_bob]

I think the ref at the game is actually Mike Riley, isn't it? At least he's got Eagle Owl on his list now.

Cheers

Dominic


My bad, you seem to be correct
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/euro/fixturesresults/round=2241/match=83778/report=lu.html

Maybe Poll got on the wrong plane
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/6701795.stm

Either way, a bubotastic story!

Cheers,
Bob.

[naturistbird]

That video really cheered me up....good stuff!

[Dave B]

That video really cheered me up....good stuff!

Does this qualify as the biggest twitch ever?!