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Kevin O'Neil of Nova Scotia can confirm that owl's do in fact have large talons.
He was en route to check his rabbit snares when he spotted a barred owl sitting in a tree. O'Neil says he "talked" to it. I have to wonder what he said, given what transpired 30 minutes later.
"On the way back to my truck carrying a couple of rabbits, a barred owl swooped down and struck me in the face," he told Nova News Now. “First it knocked me over in the snow but it didn’t go for the rabbits. It went right at my face. The pictures tell the rest—it was pretty freaky.”
Pictures of O'Neil's bloodied face are available here and here.
I have to say, the Canadian wilderness is not without its perils, but this is the first owl-on-trapper attack of which I'm aware.
