 Great horned owlet re-nested
Our first youngster of the year - as usual a great horned owl, as they
nest very early - was brought into care on Thursday, April 10th.
Found by a woman running on a trail through the woods, the bird was
transported to CRC for a thorough exam. The finder had looked
everywhere in the area for a nest - looking for 'whitewash' and pellets
on the ground, as well as possible nests up in the very tall trees in
the area - without success. Two of our volunteers went out two
days later with recordings of baby great horned owl begging calls to
see if we could call in the adults - no luck. The next day, Scott
Altenhoff, an arborist with the City of Eugene and volunteer
tree-climber extraordinaire, climbed the most likely looking tree near
where the baby was found to check out what looked like an old
nest. Great horned owls cannot usually find a cavity large enough
to use, so take over empty hawk or even crow nests. Unfortunately
they don't repair the nest - which can show the ravages of winter
weather - as would a hawk or crow, so young owls do fall. But
there was no fresh food, feathers, or droppings in this nest and it
clearly had not been used recently.
Later that same day, another young owl was brought into us.
But this time the finder was able to spot the nest - basically a dark
blob halfway up a very tall tree. When she actually saw an adult
owl take off from the nest, we suspected there might be a sibling still
in place. Although we were disappointed that this owl was too
much older than our first one to consider giving its parents an extra
'foster 'child, especially if there was another youngster in the nest,
we were excited to at least get one back home.
Scott climbed his second tall tree of the day, verified the presence
of a sibling (who luckily did not take such exception to this human
observer that it decided to leave the nest), and pulled up the
wandering owl. This photo taken on Scott's cell phone shows the
two reunited.
Young owls 'branch' or leave the nest well before they can fly,
moving from branch to branch, even tree to tree. Their parents
continue to feed them wherever their explorations take them. They
do sometimes fall, or even get knocked out of trees by crows or other
birds' mobbing them, and can get hurt. They can technically climb
a fairly straight tree with their claws while flapping their
not-fully-developed wings wildly for balance, should they find
themselves on the ground. However,though their parents do often
continue to feed them on the ground, they are very vulnerable to
predators. These two are probably just a week or so too young for
branching.
It's always amazing to me that some youngsters, like these two, can
fall 40' or more and not be injured - while others, like our education
bird Lorax, broke her wing in several places. Our first baby,
still in care, is now eating cut-up food from a plate (offered by us in
full 'ghost costume' to avoid association of food with people) and will
soon be placed outside with one of our two adult great horned
owls. Juno may not foster the baby per se - i.e., feed her and
protect her - but she will provide an adult role model so the baby
doesn't forget she's an owl, not a human.
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