Superbowl

From Raven Ridge Wildlife Center

Update on this Great Horned owl was admitted on 08/12/2023. This Great Horned owl is one of the lucky ones to have been found by Park Ranger Poffenberger, at the Gettysburg Battlefield. The Ranger, contacted Deputy Richards, of the PA Game Commission about the owl, that was grounded and not able to fly. The Deputy had contacted us and arranged transport to our facility that evening, which entailed the hand off with two transport volunteers from the battlefield.

The owl was severely dehydrated, thin 720g, weak and in a declining state. The owl was in critical condition the first 24 hours upon intake. The owl improved dramatically, and started to eat on his own but still received fluids and was being closely monitored. Many thanks to everyone involved with getting this beauty to us so quickly. The team here at Raven Ridge, is lookingforward to the release back to his home on the Gettysburg Battlefield.

GUESS WHAT? The owl doubled his weight and made a complete recovery. We kept our word and returned this healthy owl back to his home on the Gettysburg Battlefield. We would like to thank the Gettysburg Park Rangers and PGC Game Warden for being a part of therescue and release!

Got a request for some owl myths and monsters from around the world. Here is some of what I grabbed quickly.

Being night creatures and very stealthy carnivores, they make great material for stories and superstitions.

There's a few new to me in the list, so lots of guys material here for you guys to read on the provided links. Let me know who's your favorite from the list or if you know any good ones to add!

Strix (Ancient Greek)

Tah-tah-kle’-ah (Native American)

Bunyip (Native Australian)

Mictlantecuhtli (Aztec)

Ancient Egyptian Owl Mythology

Laxmi and other owl lore (India)

Photos by robbob2010

Also known as the African Long Eared Owl.

After the giant hand of God comes and scoops them up, It's so cute how they just need a quick look and then instincts immediately take over

Every animal facility I've checked out always seems to be in constant need of paper towels. It's a simple and sure to be appreciated donation anyone can make. Most centers will also have Amazon wishlists you can browse as well with supplies they rapidly go through.

This owl is from Florida's Audubon Center for Birds of Prey. It's a fun pic, and I thought it was a good time for a reminder as we approach the season of being thankful and the spirit of giving that my fellow Americans can deduct $500 IIRC of charitable functions from your income tax, so it's a win for you, your fav animal rescue which is probably 100% funded by charitable donations, and the animals!

From Facebook

"What do you mean we're completely out of paper towels?" Sanford the Eastern Screech-Owl has an urgent request! Our Center is out of paper towels, and we need your help! If you are able, please visit our Amazon wish list and order some paper towels to be delivered to us, or purchase any brand from any store and drop it off during normal business hours. The birds— and the Clinic staff whose job it is to clean up after them — will be so grateful! View our wish list here:

Link removed, I'm not here to solicit for anyone in particular. If you want to donate to this place, follow the Facebook link, or support your local rescues and rehabs.

While we use reusable products as often as possible, hygiene is crucial to the health of our birds and people in the Raptor Trauma Clinic, so sometimes only paper towels will do.

From the UMN Raptor Center

This barn owl is one of our newest raptor ambassadors here at TRC. If you’ve had the chance to visit recently, you may have met and heard how quiet Willow's owl feathers are in flight. Our ambassador raptors help to teach people about what makes them such an important part of our ecosystem and why our work in raptor medicine, research, teaching, and outreach is so important.

If you tune into our Give to the Max Day livestream on our facebook page November 16th at 8 pm EST, you’ll get to meet the 5 new raptor ambassadors at TRC. You won’t want to miss it!

Event Link

Thursday, Nov 16, 8 PM EST

If you haven't gotten to see owls in person yet, this is a 15 minute event you can enjoy from wherever you are. I hope to check it out myself.

Photo by Nigel Blake

Very unusual angle on this Shortie.

Photo by Mike Woolley

These guys always look so fluffy and cuddly, like a plushie come to life. ❤️

Texas Pete is a red morph Eastern Screech Owl from Freedom First Wildlife Rehab in Connecticut.

He had a shoulder injury which left him unable to fly, so now he's an educational bird.

All photos by Mohamed Almazrouei in Abu Dhabi, UAE

EDIT: Everything is posted now, so I'll respond to any questions I can answer for you now. Enjoy, and I hope you learn some new things!

Went to a bird banding event held by Wildlands Conservancy last night. Unfortunately this year has been a bit of a poor showing due to the warm weather, and we didn't end up with any owls.

There was still a great presentation on the owls of Pennsylvania and the bird banding process. We did get to meet some of the educational owls and handle some nice examples of things being discussed.

I got some time to talk to the guy running the banding and the lady running the animal education part of things and got some of my questions answered. I've been becoming really interested in learning more of the regulatory side of things. There is a real web of agencies that govern how wildlife can be handled.

Center for Wildlife

Last night, Bob and Fern took part in a very special ceremony. They delivered an invitation to Hogwarts to a very brave and special boy who is part of the @makeawishmaine . This boy has been facing challenges with a brave and strong spirit and is an inspiration to his family and greater community, loves Harry Potter and will be traveling to Harry Potter World! Well done, Bob and Fern, sharing magic and healing energy through wildlife ✨🧙‍♂️🦉

Photos by Chao Wei Wang

Small owl (7 in /18 cm long) from Borneo and the Philippines. Makes a goose-like sound you can hear here if you like. Mainly eats insects along the forest edge or in coconut groves.

It's overall range is small (770 sq mi / 2000 sq km) and it's habitat is becoming more disturbed by people. There is an estimated population of 6,000-15,000 owls remaining.

I was thinking it might be fun to have an Owl of the Year vote sometime soon.

Anyone interested in something like that?

I could do a bracket style elimination tournament, or I could also pick some of the more popular species from posts and do more of a poll type thing.

Or does anyone have any other ideas?

From Ojai Raptor Center

Burrowing Owl patients 654 & 692 were caught getting cozy with one another in our Burrowing Owl flight earlier today. Patient 654 (on the right) was admitted with a retinal tear in the left eye after being attacked by a cat, along with Horner’s Syndrome, a rare condition that affects the nerves that lead to the eye, which commonly presents as ptosis, or an eye droop. Patient 692 was rescued after being attacked by a dog.

From Middle Tennessee Raptor Center

Moon Pie was hit by a car in October and has spent the last few weeks recovering. After careful observation and enrichment activities, it was determined she is behaving normally again, and will be able to be released back into the wild this weekend!

Great job Moon Pie, and to everyone that took care of her!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43RCz560LR8

Been enjoying all the owl posts in here. This is not my work, credit to Harry Collins.

Thought it's too good not to share here 🦉

Found in the Andes of Equador and Peru, not much is known about the Cinnamon Screech Owl.

Photos by Chris Venetz

Check out the egg hatching videos from yesterday if you get a chance. Birds are almost fully grown after a few weeks, so there's a lot of good stuff packed into a small period of time.

10 minute video from Falconry and Me YouTube channel, based in Scotland.

Goes over a lot of great topics from why eggs are incubated, to repairing cracked shells, the hatching process, and a baby Little Owl's first meal.

You get to see 2 different incubators, some requirement to monitor the heart, and egg candling to see the bird inside the egg.

Some highlights:

Egg candling

Look at those baby toes!

He's got a little chair!

Raptor Refuge in Tasmania

The Tasmanian Masked Owl is the largest owl of the Tytonidae family of owls, which includes all barn owl and bay owl species. They are significantly larger than typical Barn Owls, and have chestnut colored faces, females typically being darker.

This pair of owls had been featured in an ABC News story for their animal ambassador work.

Painting workshops at raptor refuge offer different sort of muse in Tasmanian masked owls

Check out the whole article to learn more. Some choice quotes are below.

Raptor Refuge is a not-for-profit centre specialising in the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of Tasmanian birds of prey.

Senior keeper Juliet Harlow and volunteer Kate Shaw facilitate painting workshops on site, with life models that look and sound different from usual painting muses.

Tasmanian masked owls Montgomery and Bently, who sit for workshops, are key to the creative pursuit.

More than painting and fundraising, the workshops help educate about the endangered owl and other raptors in Tasmania.

"It's a great way to get people out to the refuge and really understand these birds," Ms Harlow said.

Captive bred, then hand-reared at the refuge Montgomery and Bently cannot be released due to their familiarity with humans.

The siblings are in permanent care at the refuge as injured Tasmanian masked owls.

"People can't get up close and touch them, or get in their space because they are still wild animals," Ms Harlow said.

"They're raptors. You don't want to shake hands with them — very sharp feet."

From The Center for Wildlife

Have you ever seen an animal defensively posture? Our long-eared owl patient, currently in care after a car strike, is showing off how many animal species display defensive behavior.

One of the most common forms of defensive posturing is puffing up and attempting to look larger than you actually are! This can help give potential predators hesitation and can help exaggerate an animal's formidability.

This long-eared owl patient remains under guarded care and our team is continuing to provide care and monitoring for signs of further issues including neurological trauma.

Since the last photo of the owl getting banded had a lot of you thinking it was getting an amputation, I thought I'd share some of the gear that is used.

Firstly, here is a video about banding. This is the one I linked in the other post, but I don't think many saw it. It's a long video, but the first 5 minutes are banding the owl, then they measure it, determine sex, and do the UV light test to agree it. Lots of interesting stuff in here.

These are bands. You can see they come in a wide range of sizes. They're just a ring of metal with an ID number on them. They are out around the Tarsus with banding pliers.

The pliers have a raised post (red arrow) to open up the band, and blunt holes (green arrow) matched to the size of the ring so it can only be closed to a safe size.

How do you know what size rings and pliers to use? There is a sizing gauge!

If a band does happen to be too snug, there is a tool to spread it back open.

I'd post more, but without native uploads working, I don't want to make a big post and have it not work.

Saw Whet Owl getting a shiny new bracelet.

Did you know you could send picture from Pixelfed ?

Hey @superbowl@lemmy.world, here a picture you already know send from a PixelFed instance.

I’m still figuring out how it work so sorry for the noise but I won’t do more test here than this post. Do you think we could post it in two communities at once ? Let’s try !

Coucou @testfediverse@jlai.lu !
Connaissez-vous la commu Superbowl ?