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

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Helping each other

Admission Date: December 4, 2012
Location of Rescue: Pulaski County, VA
Cause of Admission / Condition: Orphaned
Prognosis: Good
Patient Status: Current Patient

On November 29, a farmer found a young Barn Owl in the middle of a cow pasture in Pulaski County. There were no structures around to indicate the location of the owl’s nest. The young bird was cold and unresponsive, so the farmer picked up the owl and took it to a local small-animal veterinary clinic.

On December 4, the owl was transferred to the Wildlife Center. Upon admission, Dr. Rich and team found the owl to be thin and dehydrated, and there was mild bruising over the owl’s left elbow. Otherwise, no significant injuries were found. The team provided fluids to the owl and set it up in a crate in the Center’s holding room. The Center staff were surprised to see a five-to-six week-old Barn Owl admitted to the Center in December, but in some temperate parts of the United States, Barn Owls will have second or even third clutches – sometimes before their previous clutch is fully fledged and gone.

 Barn Owl chicks grow rapidly in their first 25 days of life, and by day 30, they are able to stretch and flap. Typically first flights are taken around day 55, according to the Bird of North America online. Since young Barn Owls typically eat whole food around day 16, the rehab staff should be able to take a fairly hands-off approach with this owl. Once the rehabilitators are certain that the owl is eating on its own, they will place it in an outdoor enclosure.

 In the meantime, Barn Owl #12-2571 was called to surrogate duty and was brought into the Center’s holding room so that the young Barn Owl may look at the older one. They are each in a travel crate, facing one another.