Adventures With Mel & Syd: Great horned owlets reunited! (Bubo virginianus)

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

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Great horned owlets reunited! (Bubo virginianus)

A horseback rider in Milpitas stumbled upon a set of baby great horned owls and helped reunite them with their parent, according to local wildlife rescue organization, WildRescue.

After finding the owlets at the base of a eucalyptus tree near Sandy Wool Lake, the horseback rider scooped up the birds and took them to the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley in San Jose.

The wildlife center worked with WildRescue and a local tree company Saturday to place the owlets in a new, safer nest attached to their home tree. Using a laundry basket, they attached limbs to the sides for perching, and lined the inside with dry vegetation. Holes in the bottom would allow for drainage. Laundry baskets make excellent replacement nests for great horned owls. There is documentation of a pair using a laundry basket for nearly a decade!