screech owl rescue

[JW_Halverson]

I was riding my bike one night and one flew out of a tree and hit me on the head lucky I had my brain bucket on. Don't know how the owl fared.

Breeding season, 'nuff said.

Eastern Screechie, grey phase, sweet!  Fives whopping ounces of terror in the night!  Their call is  acombination of a horse neighing and a woman screaming, guaranteed to make the hair on your neck stand up.  The Western Screech is much the same, but with a darker beak (easy to tell when you are looking at them 40 ft up in a pine tree at 2 a.m. and the moon behind a cloud, ya know).

Check out his camoflauge pattern.  To heck with anything Mossy Oak puts out, this guy has got it nailed!

Not sure about the Easterns, but the Westerns are known to snatch bats out of the air while hunting.  THAT is some serious arial combat manouevering.

The Black Hills Raptor Center has a Western named Boo.  He has sunk talons to the bone on me before. They may be small, but needle sharp talons and and some serious leg muscles do the damage fast. 

[gstoneberg]

Ah, thought you'd be by eventually.  Cool little birds, silent death on the wing.  Lots there I didn't know.  And we haven't even talked about how cool the owl pellets are to take apart.

George

[JW_Halverson]

I have a couple hundred sterilized owl pellets from our great horned own, Icarus.  Guaranteed to contain rat bones, fur, etc.  Lemme know how many you need for your kids and their classrooms!

[Postman]

I was lucky-he didn't break the skin, he was so out of it. I'll take you up on the pellets, have 2 let ya know - thanks!

[Marc St Louis]

When I was in my 20's a man I knew came by with an injured Sparrow Hawk he had found, he had heard that I took care of animals sometimes.  I nursed the Hawk back to health over the course of the Summer, fed him raw meat like beef or ground meat.  I remember towards the end of my time caring for him that he would perch on the hydro lines and I would feed him by throwing raw meat up in the air, which he would catch it in mid air. 

[Kpete]

I once worked on a Wood Duck restoration project in Eastern Nebraska.  We had to check the nest boxes to determing percentage of use by Woodies.  I opened one box and there was a Screech Owl in it.  Fast Asleep!  You could touch him and we woudn't move.  He was alive for sure, but eyes closed.  Gorgeous little bird.
Merry Christmas All!

[Gus]

That is Cool as Heck Mr. St Louis...

Rescued a Mallard Hen, in a broken egg, from Fire Ants (spits on the ground), she still had her yoke sack attached.
As she grew, she'd eat corn meal out of my lip, (like a dip).
She rode ahead of me a'horseback, and loved to stand on my pony's rump and keep an eye on me when we were doing chores
And she would orbit me when we'd all go swimming (the duck and the horse and me) in stock tanks or secret lakes.
Had free run of the house, did her business in a cat box, and would come Storming through the house every day when I got home from school.
Her name was Bobber.



-gus

[JW_Halverson]

  I remember towards the end of my time caring for him that he would perch on the hydro lines and I would feed him by throwing raw meat up in the air, which he would catch it in mid air.

That was excellent training for a bird that makes most of it's living catching bugs on the wing!  I have a sparrowhawk, or American Kestrel.  Colorful little tyker.  I am currently training him to fly to glove so that we can fly him in classroom education programs.