Friday FaceOff ...

 
Friday FaceOff

This is Pip ... he was a favorite at the Raptor Rehab Facility because he was raised from an egg by the volunteers (sadly before I started volunteering there).  He was a first from a long term plan to increase the Barn owl population in the area as they had dropped to a possible extinction level over the previous years.  He was so successful that we(including me this time) began raising  Barn Owls from eggs. 

We fed them by hand initially.  We had to wear Barn Owl Costumes so they didn't imprint on humans.

Then they were given to Mom & Dad Barn Owl where they learned to be real Barn Owls.  

When they were ready to fledge, they were moved into a flight cage where they developed their skills in flight and also we would release live mice so they could learn to hunt.  When they became proficient, we would release them to the wild. Some were released with telemetry  attached to them so we could follow where they were ... interestingly, most of them ended up going south to the Texas, Louisianna area.  Oh well ... there were still more Barn Owls out there :)

Hope all is well with all of you ... stay warm, we are inching toward Spring 😁

Andrea @ From the Sol