When Owls Attack!
March 20, 2023 1:19 PM   Subscribe

Aggressive owl closes campground at Killarney Provincial Park. One man suffers head wounds, another has tuque ripped off and tent attacked.
posted by Capt. Renault (52 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
These owls are not superb.
posted by hippybear at 1:27 PM on March 20, 2023 [5 favorites]


NOT THE TUQUE!
posted by ursus_comiter at 1:27 PM on March 20, 2023 [14 favorites]


Thankfully it's at the car camping sites so you can just move to another one (I can't imagine the park being too busy yet). If this happened in the backcountry it would be a real hassle because the sites are usually spaced a fair distance from each other so you'd need to carry your stuff until you were sure you were out of the owl's territory and then just make your own site. The worst would be having to hang your food again but this time at night.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:30 PM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]


Ah non! Ma tuque! Zut alors, quel dommage!
posted by Lawn Beaver at 1:39 PM on March 20, 2023 [5 favorites]


He was able to rescue his equipment by jabbing a ski pole through the strap of the headlamp, which was still wrapped around the tuque. “She couldn’t take off with it,” he wrote.

This is a Heritage Minute that needs to happen.

Mechant hibou!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:40 PM on March 20, 2023 [8 favorites]


Show of hands: toque, touque, or tuque? (Team Toque here)
posted by mpark at 1:47 PM on March 20, 2023 [8 favorites]


torque
posted by clavdivs at 1:48 PM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]


I grew up with "toque," but I think we can be ecumenical here.

Here's one informal poll.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:50 PM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]


T'que
posted by seanmpuckett at 2:00 PM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]


surely given the circumstances it's

TQUAAAAAAGGGGH!
posted by lalochezia at 2:01 PM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]


Show of hands: toque, touque, or tuque?

Many years ago, I watched a Let's Play of some survival game which took part in the winter/near the arctic? Anyways, I don't remember the game, but I do remember the streamer (who was from California? Or somewhere southern US?) mispronouncing toque as "toke" for a little while and I giggled every time.
posted by nubs at 2:06 PM on March 20, 2023


I first read that word as 'tongue'--you can imagine my relief.
posted by box at 2:09 PM on March 20, 2023 [9 favorites]


Oh, lord, we're going to start talking about Michael Peterson and the Staircase again, huh. (I actually kind of like the owl theory, don't shoot me).
posted by atomicstone at 2:20 PM on March 20, 2023 [5 favorites]


atomicstone I too, am intrigued by that theory and The Staircase was the first thing that came to mind.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 2:44 PM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]


Toque feels more accurate, tuque feels more idiomatic to me, but I’m anglo-Canadian.

If you run tuque through google translate it tells you the English is toque and identifies tuque as French Canadian.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 2:52 PM on March 20, 2023


Stocking Cap. Unwashed Illinois heathen over here.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:53 PM on March 20, 2023


Owl be damned!

I didn't know Owls did dive bombing. I have been attacked by a nesting Redwing Blackbird and that was not fun. I can only imagine the damage an Owl can cause.
posted by indianbadger1 at 3:04 PM on March 20, 2023


NOT THE TUQUE, EH?

FTFY.
posted by klanawa at 3:09 PM on March 20, 2023


I've been lucky enough to see owls silently swooping through the woods at night. They're huge and graceful, and gone before you can fully register what the white ghost was. I can't imagine imagine one going at my noggin.

Side question, anybody know why these men were tying mice to their heads?
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 3:10 PM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]


Thankfully it's at the car camping sites so you can just move to another one (I can't imagine the park being too busy yet).

“ To ensure public safety and protect wildlife, Killarney Provincial Park has temporarily closed the George Lake Campground including the yurts, cabins, campsites and select ski trails”

The owl has closed the entire George Lake campground! It is the only developed campground in Killarney. When I’ve been there I’ve used George Lake for setting off on the La Cloche trail.

Definitely a Superb Owl!
posted by fimbulvetr at 3:11 PM on March 20, 2023 [6 favorites]


I observed a Great Horned strafe silently over my little old dog a few years ago, just checking her out for feasibility. She was a small critter but not small enough, evidently. A. Lincoln has it right: any sighting is a welcome event, I've never felt anything but lucky when I get to see an owl in action. Never been bonked or ravaged by one, though. That might colour my perspective a little.
posted by elkevelvet at 3:28 PM on March 20, 2023




Owls are awesome. Also, terrifying.

Silent Death
posted by Windopaene at 3:40 PM on March 20, 2023


Tu quoque
Tuque eh?
posted by Chuffy at 3:42 PM on March 20, 2023 [2 favorites]


Naked owls are something, though. Image search at your own peril.
posted by seanmpuckett at 4:06 PM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]


Even just wet owls are nearly unrecognizable. They are mostly feather floof.
posted by hippybear at 4:08 PM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]


I read toupee. Tuque I learned from Nathan Fielder.
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 4:14 PM on March 20, 2023


I have been attacked by a nesting Redwing Blackbird and that was not fun.

I'll never forget the year a particularly territorial mockingbird decided I was a threat to its gametes or something. Every time I walked into or out of my apartment for weeks it would divebomb me, coming close enough on multiple occasions to put scratch marks on my head. Not the lacerations of this owl, but scary just the same. By the end of mating season it looked so bedraggled, with feathers falling out of its head, that I started feeling sorry for it. I figure it must have had a genetic predisposition to needless paranoia or something which really took a toll as it attacked everything in sight.

I like to think there was a lesson in there for me somewhere.
posted by mediareport at 4:14 PM on March 20, 2023 [6 favorites]


my dog

"Why would I be worried about the sign? Owls can't read!"
posted by Not A Thing at 4:39 PM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]


Team tuque.

Je m’appelle fromage.
posted by whatevernot at 5:33 PM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]


toque, touque, or tuque

I'm from Idaho. When an owl gets your hat, we say it was took.
posted by BlueHorse at 5:54 PM on March 20, 2023 [8 favorites]


Owl’s (not so) Quiet on the Western Front.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:17 PM on March 20, 2023 [2 favorites]


So about 50 years ago, I was living about an 18 hours drive northwest of this park (same province). On a full moon night, very good visibility, walking along a gravel road in the bush, I had a snowy owl dive bomb at me 3 times. Mind you, this was winter and very cold. Never could figure out why it did so. It didn't hit me, but I was watching out as best I could.

You won't believe how bright it is with a full moon in the Canadian bush.

Edit: I'm in the toque camp.
posted by baegucb at 7:12 PM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]


I have been attacked by a barred owl. At night, in the woods. In Massachusetts. It felt like someone had thrown an overripe grapefruit really hard at the back of my head. It knocked my headlamp off and sent it tumbling whoknowswhere. I had no idea what had happened, and it scared me shitless. So I'm on my hands and knees trying to find my headlamp, and asking "..hello..?" to the darkness.

When I found my headlamp, I put it on and started running toward the direction of my car. And thats when I saw it swoop at me from behind, but sailed three feet above my head, and landed on the limb of a nearby tree, about 15 feet up. I let out all of my emotions on that bird, jumping up and down like a primate.

Barred owl didn't give a fuck. It has dead eyes.

I think it thought my ponytail was a tasty squirrel.
posted by not_on_display at 7:12 PM on March 20, 2023 [8 favorites]


Show of hands: toque, touque, or tuque? (Team Toque here)

Er.


This is what is sounds like when owls cry.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:33 PM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]


command-F-staircase, of course
posted by How the runs scored at 7:54 PM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]


Owl, "Catch you later, doggo!"
posted by Oyéah at 8:29 PM on March 20, 2023


I meant to add that sign is currently posted in the park where pup and i take our afrernoon ramble. Must be angry owl season everywhere.
posted by maxwelton at 3:07 AM on March 21, 2023


I have been attacked by a barred owl.

This kind of behavior is why it’s not allowed in the pub any more.
posted by zamboni at 4:13 AM on March 21, 2023 [8 favorites]


Show of hands: toque, touque, or tuque?

In French it is tuque but in English it is whichever you choose (though touque forces you in English to pronounce it correctly - /tuːk/ or /tjuːk/ so that might be my choice en Anglais). In recent years the need for the pompom has been relaxed but traditionally it is a requirement (like this). "Knit cap" is acceptable but the infantile "beanie" (in American) or the confusing "bonnet" (in Euro French) are not.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:08 AM on March 21, 2023 [1 favorite]


I have that voyageur tuque from etchiboy! It is fantastic quality.

It drives me crazy that the Americanism "beanie" is showing up everywhere in Canada.
posted by fimbulvetr at 9:18 AM on March 21, 2023 [1 favorite]


OMG somewhere in my archives I have a tuque that resembles the linked one except it has Bonhomme on it! Acquired second-hand in Quebec or Montréal during my brief tenure at McGill.

(My first Mardi Gras was actually attending Carnaval in Quebec. Do you know what Caribou looks like when someone pukes it into a snowbank? )
posted by Lawn Beaver at 9:47 AM on March 21, 2023 [1 favorite]


Etchiboy is an excellent company - I own some of their ceinture flechée, a couple tuques and sundries - all well made. But yeah that's the original Voyageur tuque but there's plenty of modern variations with & without a pompom. As kids we would guard our pompoms from bullies who would rip them off and then use them for street hockey. I also have an extended theory about the declining quality of pompoms which I will save for another time.

It drives me crazy that the Americanism "beanie" is showing up everywhere in Canada

I won't like lie, I hate the prevalence of the American term "beanie" in Canada.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:59 AM on March 21, 2023 [3 favorites]


I won't like lie, I hate the prevalence of the American term "beanie" in Canada.

I won't like lie, I hate the prevalence of the American term "beanie" in America. There is already a hat called a “beanie,” folks, and it’s ridiculousness is well suited to its name.
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:54 AM on March 21, 2023


Beanie/toboggan/toque/chook/winter hat is yet another of those fun American regionalisms that youse love to argue about.

(Oz/NZ: beanie forever.)
posted by zamboni at 12:01 PM on March 21, 2023


knit cap or stocking cap

Is that different from a toque?

I'm a middle aged white guy with parents from Ohio who grew up in New Mexico. I don't know what a toque is.
posted by hippybear at 2:22 PM on March 21, 2023


Et tuque, Brute?

(Beware the Owls of March!)
posted by Hairy Lobster at 3:04 PM on March 21, 2023 [1 favorite]


We could overthink a pate of beanie!
posted by mubba at 5:32 PM on March 21, 2023


skull-huggers
posted by not_on_display at 8:25 PM on March 21, 2023


yarmoque
posted by away for regrooving at 11:24 PM on March 21, 2023


Owl shenanigans aside, Killarney is an absolutely gorgeous place to camp.
posted by JohnFromGR at 6:57 AM on March 22, 2023 [1 favorite]


Knit cap or stocking cap are acceptable synonyms for tuque. Toboggan to describe a hat is just confusing.
posted by Ashwagandha at 8:14 AM on March 22, 2023


« Older Revisiting a favorite from long ago   |   La Véritable Histoire d'Amélie Poulain Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments