Winter Birds Revisited
Winter Birds photographer Adam Steele took this beautiful photo of the Red-tailed Hawk release.
The Week in Review
There were just two admissions this past week, a Red-tailed Hawk and a Merlin. Both had non repairable injuries. There were bright spots in the week though . We try not to anthropomorphize the birds in our care, but sometimes we just can’t help ourselves.
Such was the case for Great Horned Owl 19-519. The owl was found injured in Hermiston October 13, 2019. Volunteer Neal Hinds captured her and transported her to Pendleton. The exam revealed the owl had been shot, fracturing the metacarpals in her left wing. Although Great Horned Owls are amazing predators, able to capture, kill and fly away with prey weighing up to three times their body weight, they are generally fairly cooperative during confinement in a hospital cage. Not so with owl 19-519. We were fairly certain if she ever encountered the person who shot her, she would inflict serious revenge. That belief was reinforced when she was released this week at McKay Wildlife Refuge this week (for obvious reasons we don’t release gunshot birds at the location where they were found). Samantha opened the box so the owl could fly away.
She did not fly away, but perched on the edge of the box, daring Samantha to come a little closer.
She finally decided to fly the opposite direction we had “suggested,” landing in a dense evergreen. If she happens to encounter anyone with a gun, they’d better keep their head down because she means business.
