Me and a Great Horned Owl
This picture was taken near my home. A local non-profit had an event for a land conservation organization and for the event there were a series of raptors there from The Teton Raptor Center, this is a small farm where they rehabilitate injured hawks, eagles and owls.
That's a real owl, about a foot tall, about 5 feet away behind the yellow cord - and very much alive.
The owl is about a foot in height. He had an injured wing and can no longer fly. You can see his one wing isn't folded along side of his body. Consequently, he can't be released back into the wild and now he travels around to events like this.
That Great Horned looks mighty puny! Must be a young one.
ReplyDeleteI grew up on a farm in Michigan. Sometime in the sixties when I was a lad, I was wondering in our small woods (six acres) when I noticed a large, light brown stone near the fence row. I couldn't remember any stone being there before so I strolled over to investigate. It was a bird, a very large bird, at least two feet long, lying motionless, head down in the grass. I took a small stick and poked at it to see if it was alive. It turned its head slowly and looked up at me. It was an owl. Figuring he (anything that big had to be a he in young lad parlance) was injured, I was about to stoop down, pick him up and take him home.
"Geez, you stupid idiot! that bird can leave a nasty gash!" Good thing I returned to my senses and let him be. The following day, I walked back the 3/4 miles to the spot to see if he was still alive. He was gone...leaving nary a feather.
Just beautiful, Mike!
ReplyDelete"That Great Horned looks mighty puny!" well, it's pry because of the different distances that mike and the bird are from the camera lens. Besides, young birds that have already fledged are the same size (sometimes even a bit bigger) than adults. Among GRHOs the males are a bit smaller than females.
I was participating in a bird breeding atlas years ago in a rural area around livermore, ca. We were there a lot so the people got to know us and that we had birds on the brain.
One day a guy came up to us and asked if we wanted to see 4 baby GRHOs. He'd been clerning out his barn when he felt like someone was looking at him. He turned around and saw 4 downy GRHO chicks staring at him!
They were almost full-size and had a number of pin feathers at various stages. One by one we went quietly up a ladder to take a peek. Magical! steph
This picture was taken near my home. A local non-profit had an event and there were a series of raptors there from a local private place where they rehabilitate injured hawks, eagles and owls.
ReplyDeleteThe owl was about 5 feet away behind the yellow cord.
www.tetonrapteorcenter.org
The owl is about a foot in height. He had an injured wing You can see his one wing insn't folded along sid of his body. Consequently, he can't be released back into the wild.
ReplyDeleteHi Mike! thank you for the info about the owl. "You can see his one wing insn't folded along sid of his body. Consequently, he can't be released back into the wild."
ReplyDeleteah, i wondered about that wing - i volunteered at a similar center about 15 years ago for a couple of years, handling the animals (including owls, screech, barn, and GRHO) in talks and in smaller groups, and explaining the animals and the organization to the visiting public.
www.wildlife-museum.org
Being around these animals and the people who have cared for and worked with them for decades is just beyond incredible. It's also a very profound service that you can offer to these animals, individually and as a species.
My friend (the one who recently spotted the un-id'd lite up in idaho) told me about that raptor center a few years ago - his parents took a trip to their facility and were just raving about it for weeks! That's really exciting you got to see the center's display, Mike, and thank you for sharing your great pictures!
Have a great day! steph
LOL In the 1st pic, the owl is like "Hey Mike! Over here! PAY ATTENTION, DAMMIT!!"
ReplyDeleteAnd the 2nd is like "Pfft! Whatever..."
:P