Nellis has a new family!!!!

I am soooo excited that I had to change my underwear. Laura Gaines spotted Nellie and new boyfriend and one baby at the Duke Mansion driveway last night and tonight we saw two babies and possibly a third. Wheeee! We watched them fly short distances from branch to branch. They are doing the head bob thing where they have to bob their heads to focus since their eyes are not developed yet.  We heard mom call from the opposite end of the park and they came right to her. It really is remarkable that we have this kind of nature show in our backyard.

So, for locals, they will likely be hanging out at Edgehill Park again. I will put some bird seed out along the creek to attract varmints. Feel free to do likewise.

Below is a video of them. I did it in thermal since it was too dark to see them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-cLwJTfWh0

And what about Ned?  It has been exactly a year since Ned was injured. This is his busy time as the baby barreds are out of the nest and sometimes they fall and go boom. A typical week brings over 30 injured raptors and they are able to rehome about 90% of them. Check out http://crc-rehab-blog.tumblr.com./ to see the work the rehab center does. Ned plays a vital role in teaching these babies how to be owls while they are orphans. Ned is quite an experienced dad. 

This explained what a surrogate owl does. Both mom and dad feed the owl.

         

Luna and Noche are a barred owl pair that live in New York. They have some excellent video of them feeding their babies and of the babies fledging and missing the mark. One is rather clumsy.

https://www.facebook.com/NYBarredOwls/timeline

This is a very tender video of Luna feeding her baby. https://www.facebook.com/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif

And here is your obligatory cute owl compilation.

As always, please support the Carolina Raptor Center!

It was a good day at the Carolina Raptor Rehab Center

Click below for an adorable video of Carly examining Groucho!

Baby great horned owl gets examined for injuries

This adorable video was taken at the Carolina Raptor Rehab Center. The grounds crew at Carolina Golf Club called me to say that a baby owl had fallen out of a tree and would I help. Definitely.

By the time I got out there, Groucho (so named because of his eyebrows) had wandered to the woods to escape some overhead hawks. Baby owls that can't fly yet are very vulnerable on the ground. I put a towel over Groucho, handled him carefully with gloves in case he was injured, and took him to the Raptor Center.

When owls are threatened, they puff up to make themselves bigger. It's very effective. Keep in mind this baby is only 4 weeks old. Look at his talons.

He was deemd fit so we took him back to the golf course in a makeshift nest for mom and dad to find him and give him a scolding.