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

Monday, March 5, 2012

One against the other..

Spotted Owl                                  VS                 Barred Owl

It’s a wrenching decision that splits wildlife biologists and environmentalists. Killing one native animal to benefit another — especially a “big, beautiful raptor, a fantastic bird,” as one biologist puts it — is such a leap that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hired an environmental ethicist to guide its discussions.

The phrase “Robbing Peter to pay Paul” comes to mind when considering a new plan by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to save the endangered Northern spotted owl.
That plan: shoot barred owls–a principal competitor of the spotted owl.

Though the USFWS policy hasn’t officially been released yet, reports that it’s likely to include a strategy to kill off between 1,200 and 1,500 barred owls from northern California through Oregon and Washington:

Update on the Federal Plan:
Barred Owl vs Spotted Owl