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, August 22, 2012

Barn Owl Release

When: Aug 25, 2012 from 5:30pm until 8:00pm

Earlier this summer, Portland Audubon's Wildlife Care Center took in three orphaned barn owls, and the birds are now old enough to be released. The public is invited to to watch the owls flap their way back into the wild at Raptor Ridge Winery on Saturday, Aug. 25.

The winery suggests that guests arrive early so they have time to get settled, and asks that groups of four or more people RSVP when possible. Call Raptor Ridge at 503-628-8463 to RSVP.

Location: Raptor Ridge Winery
18700 SW Hillsboro Hwy.
Newberg, OR 97132

They're full grown now and ready to go home. The young birds were brought in to the care center after being found in an alfalfa bale earlier this summer.

Raptor Ridge Winery has long been a loyal supporter of organizations that serve to protect and rehabilitate birds of prey in Oregon. They have recently earned recognition in the Oregon Wine Press for providing owl habitat and raptor perches in their Washington County estate vineyard. Protecting the habitat of indigenous birds of prey, like the Barn Owl, is a sustainable action to take. The birds themselves are of tremendous support in keeping other invasive species, like moles, mice, and nuisance birds, at bay.