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CAPE WILDLIFE CENTER ©2008
Rock and his sibling, Bye, fell from a treetop nest. |
Rock and Bye—two great horned owl babies on a 30 foot-tall treetop—fell when the wind blew but were cradled back atop.
Down Comes Baby
A local Cape Cod animal control officer rescued a thin and dehydrated baby owl beneath the tree in Mashpee, Mass., a town on Cape Cod, and brought the owl to the Cape Wildlife Center for evaluation and care.
After 24 hours in observation, the Center’s staff decided it was best to re-nest the baby and called on the Animal Rescue League of Boston for help reaching the nest, which was beyond the reach of most ladders. Inside a flimsy nest, the animal control officer found another baby owl and reunited the two siblings.
The next day, the Center received another call from Mashpee: An animal control officer was on his way over with two baby great horned owls—the original rescued baby and the sibling. It was then that the Center’s staff decided to name the babies “Rock” and “Bye.”
Amazingly, the owls were once again not injured. The 6-week to 7-week-old babies were just very hungry and needed to be fed a steady diet of chopped mice.
Four days later, another great horned owl baby from Yarmouth joined Rock and Bye at the Center. This baby was also found under a tree on a golf course. Only this one was named Fore!
Time for a New Song
Since re-nesting was no longer an option for Rock and Bye, the Center contacted the Blue Hills Trailside Museum, run by Massachusetts Audubon Society, and asked if all three baby owls could be taken into their adoption program.
This program relocates baby owls into existing owl family groups. The director at Blue Hills finds mother owls with babies approximately the same size and age of the rescued babies. When the mother owl returns from a flight to get food, she returns to find another mouth to feed. Next time out, she just gets more food. The program has been very successful.
The Center’s babies were accepted into the adoption program. They will be released into the wild and will be fed by their surrogate mother owl, who will also teach them to hunt and fly at night—something that is virtually impossible for wildlife rehabilitators to teach.
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Posted: November 25, 2008
