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Barn Owls
As there is very little bird activity here (at least none that I haven't already shown you), I am reaching back into my archives for some fun pictures.
In the olden days the Barn Owl had the reputation of being a harbinger of death. People were frightened when they saw them because they thought that somebody they loved was going to die. It is understandable because they appear silently, all white and their call is a blood curdling scream.
These juveniles were raised from eggs to nestlings by us and then transferred into a mew with surrogate parents. The mother and father were both injured and unable to be released, but were wonderful parents to their little adoptees. A favorite story is when we were watching them on camera, the father lined the babies up and then took a mouse to each one. Once he accidentally gave a second mouse to the same baby and when he went back to get his next mouse, he realized his mistake. He went back and took the second mouse away from the deliriously happy baby and gave it to the next sibling. We were pretty amazed. The Barn owl is actually a beautiful bird and the farmers friend as they feed on voles in the farm fields. Since so many small farms have failed and barns are fading from the landscape they have been disappearing from our area. These juveniles were raised and released with telemetry so we could study where they were going and why they were disappearing. Some of them were found as far away as Louisiana and others just disappeared like their predecessors ... Sadly.
Happy WBW Everyone ...
Andrea
P. S. Just for fun, Stewart :p
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