“Free at last, free at last!”

We had liftoff this week as the barred owl finally regained his desperately-sought freedom! He shot out of the box too quickly for a video, but thanks to a good zoom on my camera, I did get shots of him as he moved progressively farther away from me, perching in one tree for a while and glaring, and then moving to another when the nuthatches’ and mockingbirds’ screaming and dive-bombing got too irritating.

Now for what I’ve been waiting over two months to reveal: before the initial surgery, back in September, vet Jim Hobby of Smalley’s Animal Hospital looked up the literature on pinning raptor wings. The barred owl was already anesthetized and awaiting surgery when Jim called me over to the computer to read over his shoulder. According to the literature, the success rate of this type of surgery is only 1.3%. Yeah, the odds were overwhelmingly against this guy’s release, which makes his flight to freedom even sweeter. Sometimes we win, and we win big!

And once again, LWR owes HUGE thanks to vets Jim Hobby and Richie Hatcher; without their willingness to take risks, our newly-free barred owl would never have had a second chance at life.

He'd just been dive-bombed by a mocker!

Blends in nicely, doesn't he?

Sadly, this young box turtle wasn’t as lucky. He was found in the road with a severely damaged shell. The extent of the damage and his inability to use his back legs led me to believe there were severe internal injuries, and despite attempts to repair the damaged shell, the poor fellow died during the night.

Nature truly abhors a vacuum, so as soon as plans were underway to release the barred owl, LWR received a grounded great horned owl (GHO). Based on his behavior—outraged juvenile protests when I medicated and early-morning juvenile begging calls—this guy would appear to be a late hatch from this year. The inside of his beak was absolutely white, not the healthy pink it should have been, so I started him on meds for two common ailments that would cause the paleness: capillaria (worms in the crop and digestive system) or frounce (a yeast infection of the crop and digestive system). He was also rail-thin, which could be a direct result of his having either of the two ailments, or he could just be a really bad hunter. My money’s on a combo of frounce and capillaria.

I’m happy to report that he has a healthy GHO appetite (meaning he’s a bottomless pit) so now the goal is just to get some meat back on his skinny keel. With the barred owl released, the GHO went into the flight pen so he can flit about and keep his flight muscles toned.  He should be good to go in another week to 10 days. Meanwhile, I’m the recipient of his lovely threat displays when I go into the pen to drop off his mice. He’s a hoot (pun intended, so feel free to groan)!

I am big. I am bad...

Wait, are those mice?

Put the mice down and back away slowly, human...

The 2015 LWR calendars, featuring photos of 12 of this year’s intakes, are now available! This year they’re $16.50 + shipping; $5 of each purchase goes toward our rehab efforts for 2015 (the remainder is Lulu.com's printing/processing fee). US, UK and Canadian holidays are featured. I've priced it lower than previous years in hopes of selling more than 8 or 10 calendars, so click on the purchase link below and have at it!

And finally, as a bit of housekeeping, next week’s update will be on Monday the 17th, rather than Sunday the 16th—just a heads-up!