Left at the bottom of the only existing tree in the backyard

From Operation Wildlife

Need a feel good pick me up this weekend? Our first re- nesting of barred owlets.

Their original nest tree was cut down and the tree company left them on the ground next to the only other tree in the backyard. Just as an FYI - these are federally protected and we can only assume that the tree company was not aware that they were in a hollow in the tree. If a nest is active - good environmental practices as well as following federal protection laws require the tree removal be delayed until the owlets have fledged and left the nest.

The new homeowner called and our volunteer, Gary Crain, just happened to be at our facility and responded. Three is the average number of babies that barred owls normally have in our area and we were surprised to find there were four.

Why do we re-nest? Because mom and dad are the best teachers for their young. There normally isn’t a reason to intervene on a long term basis just a need to remedy a bad situation and give them a helping hand to continue their journey. Also, had we taken these owlets away from their parents to rehabilitate the food and care costs for the four of them would have exceeded $ 2,000. By having a re-nesting program we save resources to use on animals that can’t be re-homed.

Are there times we can’t re-nest? Absolutely - we take into account availability of the parents, examine the young for injuries, have an adequate tree to compensate for the loss of the original nest plus varied other factors to insure success.

Below are some great pics of the babies being re-nested in another tree and the mom coming in to check on her babies after the job had been accomplished. She supervised from a distance the entire time this process took place.

Enjoy your weekend folks and thank you for your continued support of our organization.

    • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
      6·
      13 hours ago

      This was done by Operation Wildlife in Kansas. I am with a different rehab center in Pennsylvania, so I’m just sharing the story.

      No, they should do fine in the basket. These are really big owls, and where I am, we don’t have too many trees big enough for these owls to live inside of, so I think of them living in hawk or eagle nests like this:

      Many will get put into baskets like this after big storms. Since owls don’t build their own nests, the nests can often be in poor shape after being used by the original inhabitants, and strong winds can damage them to the point where babies will fall out. Thankfully due to the babies being so light, they often aren’t bumped up too bad. Once a grounded baby is found, rehabbers will put up a basket and put all the babies in there so the others won’t eventually fall out as well. So this is a very typical owl rescue job.