That was apparently the great horned owl’s sentiment last week, as he burst out of his box before I could even finish opening it!
Oh, but let’s back up a bit, shall we? Sir GHO is ready to go: he’s had his last capillaria treatment, the temps have warmed up, there’s no rain predicted for three days. He’s a young bird, one of this year’s hatches, so I don’t have to worry about returning him to an established territory—great! I have a safe place to release him, with plenty of prey, so into the flight pen I stride, gloved and ready to “do battle” with a very antsy and eager-to-leave GHO.
He flies into the back wall of the flight pen—remember, this is still a songbird flight pen, flimsy by raptor standards—and I’m able to grab him from behind as he tries to rip through the mesh. Honestly, I’m surprised he didn’t tear his way out over the past two weeks; his feet and beak were powerful enough to’ve ripped the mesh and probably the hardware cloth if he’d had enough sense to try. (I promise you, no GHO will ever be nominated for Mensa!)
So…got the very unhappy camper by the body; now to get those powerful feet under control ASAP, which I do with no trouble. It’s a skill honed by practice!
Next step, bring his back against my chest to control him as we head for the box that will take him to his release. But wait, Sir GHO is NOT gonna go quietly into that good box, no, not him. He turns around and BITES my BOOB—through a sweatshirt and bra. And I gotta give him credit here: he drew blood through two layers of clothing…without tearing the clothing! (And NO, there will be no photos of my bloody boob; I’m crazy, not stupid, and it wasn’t really THAT bad—only about a half-inch wound.)
Violent protests notwithstanding, Sir GHO’s feathered butt DID go into the box, and we headed to the release site. He was MOVING the box in the back of the car as I drove, so I knew this would be a quick release.
And it was. I had one flap partially open, and a feathered blur erupted, heading for the treeline and leaving me standing there with a totally useless camcorder in hand, looking like a doofus.
So I take off running into the woods to try and capture a few still photos, at least, and…I twist my ankle crashing through the brush in search of the GHO. Not a bad twist—no swelling, but it definitely feels bruised. The things I do to document releases…
Never fear, though, I did find the now-calm(ish) bird, sitting on a tall, skinny snag.
Oh, but let’s back up a bit, shall we? Sir GHO is ready to go: he’s had his last capillaria treatment, the temps have warmed up, there’s no rain predicted for three days. He’s a young bird, one of this year’s hatches, so I don’t have to worry about returning him to an established territory—great! I have a safe place to release him, with plenty of prey, so into the flight pen I stride, gloved and ready to “do battle” with a very antsy and eager-to-leave GHO.
He flies into the back wall of the flight pen—remember, this is still a songbird flight pen, flimsy by raptor standards—and I’m able to grab him from behind as he tries to rip through the mesh. Honestly, I’m surprised he didn’t tear his way out over the past two weeks; his feet and beak were powerful enough to’ve ripped the mesh and probably the hardware cloth if he’d had enough sense to try. (I promise you, no GHO will ever be nominated for Mensa!)
So…got the very unhappy camper by the body; now to get those powerful feet under control ASAP, which I do with no trouble. It’s a skill honed by practice!
Next step, bring his back against my chest to control him as we head for the box that will take him to his release. But wait, Sir GHO is NOT gonna go quietly into that good box, no, not him. He turns around and BITES my BOOB—through a sweatshirt and bra. And I gotta give him credit here: he drew blood through two layers of clothing…without tearing the clothing! (And NO, there will be no photos of my bloody boob; I’m crazy, not stupid, and it wasn’t really THAT bad—only about a half-inch wound.)
Violent protests notwithstanding, Sir GHO’s feathered butt DID go into the box, and we headed to the release site. He was MOVING the box in the back of the car as I drove, so I knew this would be a quick release.
And it was. I had one flap partially open, and a feathered blur erupted, heading for the treeline and leaving me standing there with a totally useless camcorder in hand, looking like a doofus.
So I take off running into the woods to try and capture a few still photos, at least, and…I twist my ankle crashing through the brush in search of the GHO. Not a bad twist—no swelling, but it definitely feels bruised. The things I do to document releases…
Never fear, though, I did find the now-calm(ish) bird, sitting on a tall, skinny snag.
As I got closer, he took off again, deeper into the woods, and I followed. He perched where I had a clear view of him and I even got some video to sorta kinda compensate for the missed release footage.
In the close-up video of his face below, he’s doing what we call “happy face”, which is a bit of a misnomer, as it can indicate either contentment or stress. In his case, given he was being chased through the woods by a fool with a camera, I’d lean toward stress!
And then he decided he’d had enough of THAT, thank you very much, so he took off again. And I followed again. The poor bird must’ve been developing a persecution complex at this point, but it paid off as far as I’m concerned. I got what turned out to be my favorite shot of him, thanked him as I tramped back out of the woods, and told him to have a good life and not do anything stupid. Yeah, right…he IS a great horned owl, after all…
Do remember that 2015 LWR calendars are available through Lulu.com (link below) for $16.50 + shipping. Thus far, a whopping 4 calendars have been sold, so I’m hoping that number picks up as the holiday gift-shopping begins in earnest later this week. (I refuse to utter the “C” word until after Turkey Day. Let’s enjoy one holiday at a time, shall we?) US, UK and Canadian holidays are featured, and $5 of each purchase goes toward funding next year’s rehab efforts. (The remaining 11.50 goes to Lulu; I see no personal profit from these calendars.)
And when you do start your online holiday shopping in earnest, be sure to use the Amazon Smile program (smile.amazon.com) so that .05% of each qualified purchase (and I’ve been using this program for almost a year now and have found very few items that don’t qualify) is donated to LWR.
And finally, if you’ll recall, last week I mentioned that LWR needs local volunteers to help tear down and rebuild the songbird flight pen and build the raptor flight pen from the ground up. Recall, also, that I asked for interested parties to call and leave a message. The silence thus far has been deafening. I only need 3-4 people to help out, so c’mon, folks, let’s get these pens done before babies start coming in. Spring will be here before ya know it!
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