SNN (ScrollingNetworkNews) ✿ ✿ Our Mel and Sydney returned to their nesting box with plenty of bonding occurring..but after 2.5 months of Sydney in the box from Dec 2013 to mid Feb 2014, the lack of prey gifts from Mel ( perhaps due to the severe and historic drought underway in California)and they have forgone the nesting process this year as many other raptors ✿ Compared to other owls of similar size, the Barn Owl has a much higher metabolic rate, requiring relatively more food. Pound for pound, Barn Owls consume more rodents – often regarded as pests by humans – than possibly any other creature. ✿ We remind viewers that sometimes owlets may not survive - the parents will dispose of things in "The Owl Way" -viewer discretion is advised, this is nature and the "Owl way". ✿ ~ ✿ “Animals, like us, are living souls. They are not things. They are not objects. Neither are they human. Yet they mourn. They love. They dance. They suffer. They know the peaks and chasms of being.” ― Gary Kowalski, The Souls of Animals ✿ Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius." ~ E.O. Wilson

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Simon the Eastern Screech Owl, was returned to the facility -- no questions asked.

LONG HILL, N.J. — A beloved tiny, partly blind and flightless owl stolen this week from a New Jersey avian rehab center has been returned.

Officials with The Raptor Trust in Long Hill say Simon, an eastern screech owl, was returned unharmed Friday night.

A good Samaritan had told them that the bird would be returned if no charges were filed. Lauren Butcher, the trust's education director, tells The Daily Record of Parsippany that officials don't believe that person was involved in the abduction, which apparently happened late Wednesday or early Thursday.

Simon was a little dehydrated and undergoing fluid therapy Saturday, but was expected to make a full recovery. He will be shielded from the public this weekend so he can calm down.

There are two color morphs of the Eastern Screech owl, a gray phase and a reddish-brown phase.