From Don Wiggans
The Screech Owl sure has a good hiding spot from the Nuthatch!
Crested Owl
anon6789
joined 1 year ago
Ferruginous Pygmy Owl
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Sooty did well for itself, never falling far behind, but the GHO was not to be denied this year. The iconic horned owl of the Americas is moving on and looking to take its place among top owls.
I was happy the Sooty got a lot of love. It's a great owl I always want to see more of.
Someone set the Barn Owl printer to grayscale and a happy accident was created! 😁
They've got some of the best plumicorns in the business! It's hard to say no to them.
Whoever wins this has an uphill battle against the Burrow Owl, so you gotta go with whichever you feel has the best odds. It took White Faced Scops to stop him last year.
Sooty is as beautiful as a clear night sky, but can it pull the numbers needed to surpass that? GHO may be the wise choice.
Life is full of difficult choices 😅
I don't speak French, but since pseudo participates here so much, I try to see if I can come up with jokes that work in French.
The first caption says "you can't decide between the horned owl and the non-horned owl?"
The word in the second box means "ear.". I thought that looked like the Orly? meme, which felt funny. Pronunciation sounds more like "oo ree elle" than "oh really" but I still feel this constitutes funny word play. Homonyms can be just as funny as homophones I'd say.
La prononciation ne semble pas la plus proche, mais je pense que la combinaison de lettres est suffisamment similaire pour que cela fonctionne, étant une parodie du mème ORLY ?
Last year's Owl of the Year, the White Faces Scops.
From Karen Stander Van Jaarsveld
A very wet Southern White-faced owl, Kgalagadi. (Botswana)
I was going to originally start Owl of the Year today, but coming home from vacation took more out of me than I had anticipated, so we'll kick it off tomorrow!
This post felt fitting.
Meet Ember - a touch of magic to the skies. Ember is the same species as other barn owls seen in the UK, but he has extra melanin (pigmentation) in his feathers which makes him that gorgeous charcoal and orange! We think Ember is gorgeous!
From Center for Wildlife
Since the start of November, we have admitted 33 owls to our Wildlife Medical Clinic (see below to learn why). A vast majority of these have been barred owls, our most common owl species found in our region, but we have also admitted a couple of our smallest regional owls.
Pictured here are the two smallest of our regional owls, the Eastern Screech Owl and the Northern Saw-whet Owl. The Northern Saw-whet Owl is the smallest of our regional species and maxes out at about 7-8 inches tall and typically weighs under 150 grams. These secretive little owls usually prefer well-forested habitats and are most commonly found in the shelter of densely foliated conifer trees. The Eastern Screech Owl comes in at a whopping 6-10 inches tall and is a cavity dweller that loves to nest in the cavities of old growth trees in mixed -forest habitats.
The Northern Saw-whet Owl pictured here came to us after a window strike. The Eastern Screech Owl, along with the vast majority of the other owls admitted this month came to us after being hit by cars. This time of year, sunset lines up perfectly with evening rush hour traffic. As the favorite hunting time of many of our owls overlaps with increased cars on the road, we regularly see increases in instances of owls being hit by cars. Rubbish that collects along roadways attracts small mammals which then attract owls on the hunt. When swooping down in pursuit of prey, owls commonly must pass in front of cars traveling on busy roadways.
Here are some things you can do to help owls:
Keep roadways clean by never disposing things from your car (including biodegradable items), leaving your trash in a covered receptacle, or by conducting roadside cleanups!
Slow down! Drive slow and stay vigilant when driving through heavily wooded areas.
If you see an owl in the roadway, give them a hand. Sometimes birds are stunned and may take off from a safe area or if injured, wrap them in a towel and transport them to your nearest licensed care facility.
Looking for more tips for wildlife rescue, head to our website!
Raptor persecution is still well and alive.
This Great Horned Owl is one of the few success stories after a raptor is shot. In the first image of the x- ray, you can see the white spots in her left wing affecting the radius/ulna to her metacarpals. These spots indicate bullet fragments.
This owl required a long stent in rehab and was in care for 280 days (Rescued Feb 10 this year). While she healed from the injuries within a few months, her flight feathers were sheared off, and we had to wait for her to molt. We tried imping (a feather implant), but she chewed the imped feathers out.
Getting this beauty where she belongs was worth the time and resources. She was finally released back to the wild on Nov 15th.
We want to thank Chloe and lsacc for rescuing this owl and becoming dedicated volunteers who helped us quickly rescue injured raptors in the Bitterroot Valley.
We are grateful that Julie Lue with MT FWP published an article on this widespread threat in raptor conservation-link to the latest issue of Montana Outdoors with an article about raptor persecution. (Starts on page 37, warning: dead bird images)
From NM Wildlife Center
Whooooo was in that x-ray we posted this morning? That would be one of our current hospital patients, Western Screech-Owl 24-963. This owl arrived with a fractured ulna, which we were able to feel during the owl's intake exam. At the end of the exam, we took a "plop" x-ray - a quick snapshot taken while the patient is conscious but immobilized under carefully placed towels - to check on the placement of the fracture.
What we saw in the x-ray was a mid-shaft fracture, which generally has a better prognosis than one close to a joint. However, the broken ends of the ulna were resting against the nearby radius. If the fracture were allowed to heal in that position, the two bones would likely fuse together (synostosis) and the owl would never be able to use that wing correctly.
As soon as 24-963 was stable enough for general anesthesia, she was able to undergo surgery right here at NMWC to have her fracture pinned. We are very fortunate to have a full-time staff veterinarian as well as a team of highly skilled wildlife rehabilitators to assist during surgery! The pin in the owl's ulna - which you can see in the third picture here- will remain there until the bone has healed enough to be stable on its own.
In the meantime, every few days, our hospital team checks and cleans the surgical site and performs physical therapy on 24-963's wing to make sure she is maintaining full range of motion. All of that is done with the owl under sedation, since those procedures would otherwise be very stressful and painful for her. She receives daily medications to control her pain and prevent infection, and she's eating mice on her own like a champ!
X-ray Images
During surgery
The plop
From Ken Grille
The beautiful and majestic Snowy Owl, 11/22/24 Eastern Massachusetts.
This amazing creature migrates to our area from far far away in the Arctic. I would see some in Eastern Long lsland where we used to live and saw a few the first winter (2022) we were here in Eastern Massachusetts. And then for two years (for various reasons) few if any migrated South.
The experts weren't hopeful that we would see Snowies this year as well. But about 7-10 days ago a few started to arrive in their usual spots and yesterday saw my first one in over two years. I am always stunned by their beauty and gracefulness.
These photos were taken from quite a distance so as not to disturb the Owl. I was on a road, saw him on a shoreline, and never got closer than that. Photos were shot with my long zoom lens (at 900mm) and are heavily cropped.
While will not be frequently searching to take multiple photos of the Snowy Owls (they need to rest and not be on high alert all the time), on the occasion that do this winter it will be quietly, from afar, and for short durations of time. Good advice for everyone to practice on all wildlife.
Lastly, please do not ask me for locations of any Owls or wildlife. I never give that out to protect these precious animals. Thank you.
From Hunter Welsh
My first encounter photographing a Screech Owl!
From Iowa Raptor Project
Tonight we banded our 21st Northern Saw-whet Owl of the season, one month to the day after we banded our first. Here it is held by IRP Raptor Research intern Aaron Petrie with volunteer Ben Conrads looking on.
Many people are surprised by the number of owls we're encountering with such limited effort that we've invested. We are finding the lowa River valley at the Macbride Nature Recreation Area to be quite productive. We're most interested this year in discovering how long their fall migration season lasts. Looks like we will be back out for more cold nights ahead!
From Jesse Hermanson
Great Horned Owl
From Brian Welch
Working on the assumption with the previous nights' falling snow that my local barn owl would have had limited success at hunting so it may come out early and in the hope that the lying snow on the fellside would reflect some light (normally comes out when too little light for photos) stood waiting in the fell road edge for it to appear from the farm. I was not disappointed.
It appeared at 3.30 p.m. and did a 20 minutes display over the lower fell before moving off up the fellside. Light interesting but not brilliant. Its mate even appeared briefly. Some good close passes photos below not cropped.
Barn vs Boreal was the second closest match we've had so far. I don't think I saw a point where Boreal actually got ahead, but it stayed close all day. Lots of people liked the chubby but paranoid looking little owl, and I wonder if it will maintain any off season popularity.
Barn Owl is possibly the most ubiquitous owls in the world, so I don't think one could argue it doesn't deserve to move on.