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, January 11, 2012

82-year-old's dream of seeing bald eagle fulfilled

Ruth Payton is an 82-year-old hospice patient with terminal hemolytic anemia who resides in the Macon, Mo., area. She loves birds and recently acquired two cockatiels that she enjoys watching and listening to throughout the day. When her Hospice Compassus nurse learned that Mrs. Payton’s long-held dream is to see an American bald eagle “in real life,” she passed the information onto her hospice social worker, Randi Petre. Mrs. Petre contacted the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine to inquire if the College’s Raptor Rehabilitation Project could assist the hospice Dream Team in making Mrs. Payton’s wish a reality.


As fate would have it, Raptor Rehabilitation Project members have been treating a mature bald eagle they named Watson. Watson was brought to the MU Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital Dec. 5, 2011, by a Missouri Conservation agent. Watson was unable to stand and showed many signs of a neurologic problem consistent with lead poisoning. Lead toxicity is a common problem in bald eagles. It is typically caused by an accumulation of lead during the lifetime of the bird from eating contaminated fish and other prey.

The eagle, Watson is estimated to be a female because of her size and at least Five yrs old due to her white head. On Sunday, Jan. 8, at 1 p.m. Watson was released into the wild and Miss Ruth was able to experience watching and making a dream come true!