Superbowl

From Eric D Olick

From Cape Wildlife Center

Getting stuck on a goal is never fun Our latest patient is a stunning and mildly annoyed Great Horned Owl who had an unexpected encounter with a soccer net. He got tangled while presumably chasing a skunk (based on the smell) and was unable to free himself. Thanks to some quick action from local wildlife lovers and animal control he's now in good hands!

He was rushed to our hospital with a large section of netting still attached. We carefully untangled him from the net, ensuring no further injuries, and he'll be staying with us as he recovers. He has a few sprains and lacerations, but luckily he did not do any major damage. Our team will give him the care he needs until he's back to full health and ready to soar once again.

Believe it or not, this is a common predicament that we treat several times each year. You can help the owls in your backyard this season by taking down sports nets when not in use, removing garden netting, and not using fake spiderwebs outdoors!

From LA Times

Lila Seidman, Oct. 14, 2024

California wildlife policymakers have opted to protect the diminutive Western burrowing owl as they consider listing the rapidly declining species as endangered or threatened.

The state Fish and Game Commission unanimously voted last week to make the unique avian a candidate for permanent safeguards under state law while acknowledging the perspectives of stakeholders from industries that could be affected by the decision.

Conservationists point to development, agriculture and clean energy projects as contributing to the owls’ decline by snatching habitat. Some industry representatives pushed back on the claims and underscored the importance of their role in the state.

“I think economics versus conservation is a false choice,” commission President Samantha Murray said during the Thursday meeting. “In California, we have the fifth-biggest economy in the world. We can have solar and housing and food and burrowing owls.”

The commission rejected a similar bid for protections roughly 20 years ago, and since then the situation has become more dire for the bird — the only owl species to nest and roost in underground burrows. Proponents of exploring the listing of the owls under the California Endangered Species Act said existing regulations and management strategies haven’t worked.

In 2003, when a petition to consider listing the species was denied, there were no more than 10,500 breeding pairs, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. As of last year, there were, at most, 6,500 pairs.

It’s believed the owl with bright yellow eyes has been extirpated from 16% of its range in parts of the coast and Central Valley. It has been nearly wiped out in 13% of its range, also in those regions. In the Bay Area, the owl is barely hanging on.

“At long last there’s a glimmer of hope for California’s rapidly disappearing burrowing owls, who desperately need protection,” said Jeff Miller, a senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement.

In March, the center, along with the Defenders of Wildlife, the Burrowing Owl Preservation Society, the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, the Urban Bird Foundation, the Central Valley Bird Club and the San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society, filed a petition with the commission seeking endangered or threatened status for burrowing owl populations. Miller penned both the 2003 and 2024 petitions.

Miller describes the owls as “eggs on legs” because the animal’s round head and body sit atop long, skinny legs. They stand just 7 to 10 inches tall and, as their name suggests, nest underground. “They can seem kind of goofy,” Miller told The Times earlier this year.

The owls inhabit grasslands, shrublands and deserts, as well as “human-altered landscapes,” including agricultural lands, golf courses and cattle pastures, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Anne Hilborn told the commission. “The things that they really need are burrows and short vegetation,” with the burrows primarily appropriated from ground squirrels, she said.

Sprawl development and control efforts targeting ground squirrels have pushed the owls out of the areas they dwell in, while renewable-energy projects and some types of agriculture also have infringed on their digs, according to conservationists.

The burrowing owl is a California species of special concern, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bird of conservation concern, and has protections under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. It is not listed under the federal Endangered Species Act.

“Burrowing owls cannot wait any longer,” Miller told the commission. “And I’ll just say, personally, I love this species. And I’d like to see them around for future generations throughout the state.”

As California farms use less Colorado River water, worries grow over shrinking Salton Sea Oct. 13, 2024

Home building, agriculture and solar and wind energy industry representatives rejected some assertions made by the petitioners while underscoring their contributions to top state goals, such as moving away from fossil fuels and increasing housing.

Shannon Eddy, executive director of the Large-Scale Solar Assn., who supported exploring listing the owls, said the petitioners made unsubstantiated claims about the effect of solar projects on the species.

Eddy said solar projects had protected the owls’ grasslands and that they’d been known to return to solar energy development sites once construction was completed.

“We are a country divided, and we need to stand against false rhetoric,” she said during public comment, “and we need to dispel the kind of specious assertions like these that turn regulators and the public against one of our best tools to address the climate crisis.”

Clark Morrison, a natural resources attorney representing the California Building Industry Assn., said the industry “does find itself facing great challenges because of the pace of listings and other regulatory changes in the state.”

“These do have an impact on the provision of housing,” he told the commission. “They slow projects down. In many cases, the projects are abandoned because the regulatory challenges can’t be met.”

Miller, however, argued that the development threatening the owls is urban sprawl, often characterized by low-density housing — not areas where affordable housing is built.

Wildlife officials said they do not see elevating the owl to candidate status as undercutting other priorities.

“I appreciate how important all of those dimensions of what’s happening in the state are and also how urgent the situation is for the owl,” commission Vice President Erika Zavaleta said.

The owl, now a candidate to be listed under the state Endangered Species Act, will enjoy the same protections as if it was listed while a 12- to 18-month status review moves forward.

“After decades of effort to safeguard declining burrowing owl populations in California, the species has finally been afforded interim state protections where they’re most needed — at least for the time being,” said Pamela Flick, California program director with Defenders of Wildlife, in a statement.

Once the review is complete, the Fish and Game Commission will decide whether to deem the owls — statewide or certain populations — threatened or endangered under state law.

From Justin Rogers

Well hello old friend it's been MONTHS since I've seen you! Glad to see you've survived another season.

From Ricky Roman

When a Northern Harrier and a Short-Eared Owl meet in the sky, it is not a friendly encounter. Northern Harriers often steal the freshly caught meal of Short-Eared Owls. The attempted theft fails when the Shortie is fierce and knows its power. In this case, the Shortie prevailed!

From Hawaii News Now

Meet Honolulu Zoo’s new mayor!

Makamae is a male pueo, a native Hawaiian short-eared owl. He came to the Honolulu Zoo on July 19, 2016, from the Kauai Humane Society. He was found with a blind right eye and was deemed unsuitable for release back to the wild.

Makamae defeated his opponent, Jaws, a Galapagos tortoise, in a virtual election conducted on the zoo’s Facebook and Instagram pages. One of the zoo’s oldest residents, Jaws arrived as a juvenile in 1929, before the zoo was even established.

Not all is lost for Jaws. He was named the zoo’s Director of Habitat Protection and Chief Conservation Officer and will lead a subcommittee as Czar of Birthday Shellebrations for all zoo animals.

The contest was designed to bring attention to the challenges endangered and threatened species face.

The Pueo is Hawaii's only living native owl. Barn Owls were brought purposefully to the islands last century.

There were a few varieties of large "stilt-owls" that went extinct that were up to 2 ft / 60 cm tall though! The largest species of stilt-owl was found in Cuba and is 50% bigger!

From Edwin Godinho

Incoming dart - A Little owl coming straight down the barrel. They have this bouncing wave like flight pattern like a woodpecker. It a few flaps then glide with the wings tucked but gravity brings them down and then they flap again. This is when they tuck their wings and cut through the air.

Unless you have seen them on the field you cannot appreciate their size. They are tiny for an owl and capturing them in flight is not easy especially when they are coming towards you like that.

But now due to the way mirrorless cameras Autofocus works it has made it much easier to track them. It is probably their eyes as well that helps the subject detection pick them out more easily. Better hit rate on these shots than we had with DSLRS.

From Suffolk Owl Sanctuary

As we arrive at November, we also recognise and moustaches in unison over the month to signify We at Suffolk Owl Sanctuary would like to join all those taking part in solidarity by highlighting some of our owls' very own funky 'moustaches!

Owls have a set of moustache-like feathers around their beaks called crines. These crines are specially adapted feathers that act like whiskers, helping the owl to feel for their food and surroundings in front of them! This is because their eyes are not adapted to see very well at short range.

Crines seems to be the UK English term. The only references I saw to this word are in UK or Canadian sites. We've talked about these before as rictal bristles.

We're able to move our eyeballs to stare at our nose and mouth area, but as owl eyes are fixed in position, that leaves them with a blind spot there. That's where these special feathers come in!

From A Place Called Hope

5 NOV

Cuteness overload!! Northern Saw Whet Owl receives Cold Laser Therapy for a spinal trauma injury from a window collision. Listen to this owl tell me what's up after snuck a scritch of the head in... was not appreciated. Most wild animals don't appreciate our affection...

From Chuck LeMay

I went looking for an Owl this morning and it found me. I'm walking down a path in Hadley and got hit in the top back of the head. I thought something fell out of the tree but didn't see or hear anything hit the ground. I started walking again and felt something brush against my left cheek, then l saw the Owl flying in front of me. It flew into a tree with too much brush between us for me to get a good picture. Within seconds it flew about 50 feet and attacked another Owl. Both flew away and tracked one of them down and it eventually sat on a railing and posed for me.

This is a first for me and fortunately there was no blood on my head just a scratch. The brush against my face was from the wing of the owl.

From Wild Skies Raptor Center

This summer, on August 4th, we received a beautiful Western Screech 0wl found in Lincoln, MT. This petite predator was found lying under the property owner's fence with a pelvic fracture caused by colliding with that fence. When we went out there to release her, the fence was seen to be pretty discreet, which explains how this occurred. On October 17th, after over two months of TLC, we released this diminutive yet deadly bird back into the wild!

Fence collisions are another frequent cause of trauma we see that can also be prevented by the help of the people who maintain them. Just like window collisions, sometimes our avian friends are unable to see these obstacles and end up caught or injured by them. Highlighting your fences so they are more visible such as with bright colored markers (i.e. ribbons) can help reduce these incidences. Doing this even in intervals throughout the fencing, especially in areas frequented more by birds such as near their preferred tree species or hunting grounds, can make the world of difference for a little bird such as this Screech Owl!

Original pictures were a bit dark, so I brightened them up. I'll give you both.

From Dick Brubaker

"On silent wings through a wooded swamp the Barred Owl is in search of mice, frogs, crayfish and birds." 10/21/24.

From Cynthia Rand

This little Red Screech Owl looks so tiny in this giant cavity, but wanted to include the autumn leaves in the photo. We only have the brightly colored leaves for a short time and love owls in the fall foliage!

From Cape Wildlife Center

🚗🦉lt's Owl Awareness Week🦉🚗

If you've never heard of this, that's ok, we kinda made it up lol. BUT it's important to make everyone aware that their chances of accidentally hitting an owl while driving at night drastically increase this time of year.

As the sun sets earlier an owl's prime hunting time now coincides with rush hour traffic, especially after the clocks go back with daylight savings time. Now as these birds of prey are crossing roads in search of food they have many more cars to contend with, making them more vulnerable to collisions.

It might not seem like roadways would make good hunting grounds but raptors have good success finding their next meal around these areas because the open spaces make prey easier to spot and rodents are attracted to eating discarded food from travelers.

Pretty much like clock work the number of injured owls admitted to our hospitals unfortunately skyrockets. These birds tend to sustain severe head trauma, eye damage, and sometimes fractures after being hit by a car. Let's do our part to keep them safe!

Here are a few tips to help protect our feathered friends:

Slow Down: Reduce your speed during dusk and dawn, especially in areas known for wildlife.

Stay Alert: Keep an eye out for wildlife crossing signs and be mindful of your surroundings.

Report Injuries: If you see an injured owl, contact us or a local wildlife rehabilitation center for advice on how to safely get the bird help.

Together, we can help reduce the number of owls injured on our roads this fall. Let's keep our nocturnal neighbors safe!

From Deanna Wood

One of my favorite catches back in March 2024! What a heck of a surprise! A first time to see an Eastern Screech Owl, and then to have the Red Morph pop up from down below!

From Davorin Munda

Boreal owl, Slovenija

From Harold Wilion

I was definitely blessed that this gray screech picked a perch after leaving the hole where I could align myself with some nice color in the background, since there was very little color remaining. Surprisingly it sat on this perch for 6 minutes, which for a Screech owl that just left his hole is oh, so long.

I find these out of the hole shots the toughest to get anywhere in focus. First of all, it's pretty dark. Too dark for autofocus to work accurately if at all. And in such low light, it's difficult to see even when the subject is in focus.

But the biggest problem is, most of the time when an owl flies from its hole in the evening, it's all hyped up and constantly swiveling its head back and forth looking for its next meal. The big problem is, as was the night I shot this, he had his back turned towards me and 99% of the time, looked away from me.

What sometimes I do is just focus on the back of his head and quickly try to grab some shots when I can see an eye or two. But that has its drawbacks. With the fast (f2.8/f4) lenses use, the depth of field is extremely shallow. His eye can be in focus and his beak slightly soft for instance. So, I have to hope his eye(s) will be in the exact distance as the back of his head when he turns toward me. After I grab some insurance shots this way, I usually wait till he turns towards me, which could literally be only one second here and there, and focus on an eye. Then, the next time he turns towards me to some degree, is when I click the shutter.

It gets very stressful because you never know how long he will stay on that perch, and oftentimes it's too brief to even find him in my viewfinder. And since I'm always doubting my focus, I keep going through this process again and again if time allows. It's always hit or miss, and my success rate is poor, but I'm exhilarated when after he flies off, can check a few frames and find one I think the focus is good enough.

Out of the six minutes he was on this perch, out of about 100 shots, I didn't get one that thought was my definition of sharp, but DXO and Topaz certainly help.

Even when photographing them in the hole, I refocus every single time the owl moves in the hope of getting the sharpest photo possible. And with such slow shutter speeds, even if the bird actually is in focus, any fine movement of the bird, or the tree limb due to wind, you're pretty much guaranteed a pretty low keeper rate.

Lastly, with such long, heavy lenses, every time you touch the lens to focus, it takes a while for the setup to stop vibrating which causes a loss of sharpness. Try this. Zoom into your subject as much as you can. have a button program to enlarge the image to 50% or 1:1 actual size to make it easier to focus. So, zoom in as much as you can, and while looking at your camera back, just tap your camera and see how much your image jiggles around before it settles down.

It might take a second or two. So do the math. If the owl turns towards you for only 3 seconds, and it takes you 2 seconds to focus, and one or 2 seconds for the camera to stop vibrating.

This photo was taken hour after sunset at.4 sec 8000. The color of the background is real.

From James Overesch

Photographed in Wisconsin

From Amy Louhela

This will forever be one of my absolute favorite images that I have ever taken..

As autumn blankets the landscape in warm hues of orange and gold, the owl emerges as a symbol of wisdom and mystery.

From John Sullivan

A very well hidden hootie!

From Harold Wilion

I meant to post this yesterday, but life got in the way. There's nothing scarier than witnessing a Screech owl yawn. And nothing spookier than seeing the owl's spirit leave the hole at night like the last shot.

From William Ko

Rather rare. Listed as 'Near Threatened' by Birdlife International. It is endemic to Sulawesi, Indonesia

I normally don't share anything I don't like here, but after reading these 2 pieces, I was left feeling very conflicted, so I thought I might get some opinions on it.

This person seems to be very qualified when it comes to all things forestry, and I don't think anyone could argue his credentials.

I thought I agreed with his overall point, but after reading his reasoning, it makes me question my choice. Perhaps I was being too pessimistic in giving up on the Spotted Owl. I don't think regulation will come to the timber industry due to there being too much money left in harvesting old growth.

With that option off the table, the only realistic thing to do seemed to let the Spotted and Barred Owls find a consistence, even if that meant the Spotted Owl would lose in the long run.

But I disagree with this guy's reasoning so much, it really bothers me. I don't know if the US or Canada will ever have leaders that will care about our environment over money, but it doesn't feel right to throw in the towel on the Spotted Owl.

If you read this, and especially the linked PDF article that goes into more detail that almost got him "canceled," in curious as to your takeaways.

From Capital Press

Commentary: Hoot owl biology and the U.S. government By Bob Zybach

In Charles Darwin's 1859 "Origin of Species," he describes "race" as members of the same species that typically develop different characteristics when separated geographically over time. Human races were the common focus and "scientific" discussions reflected the bigoted prejudices of that time.

In 1942 a German ornithologist, Ernst Mayr, defined animal species as "genetically distinct populations of individuals" capable of mating with one another and producing viable offspring.

These were the definitions my classmates and I were taught in public grade schools in the 1950s, and in public high schools and colleges in the 1960s.

When the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was adopted in 1973, 36 birds, 22 fish, 14 mammals, six reptiles and six amphibians were initially listed: 84 animals in all, and each a distinct species.

Today there are more than 1,770 designated ESA species listed as threatened or endangered in the U.S., and more than 635 foreign species: 2,400 total.

Of these totals, only 57 species that have been considered "recovered" and 11 considered "extinct" were delisted in the past 51 years. This is a success rate of less than 3%; and an average of listing more than 47 new ESA species a year, while removing only one.

The cost to taxpayers can be measured in the billions or trillions of dollars, depending on the accounting method.

The barred owl is the most common brown-eyed owl in North America and has been popularly known as a "hoot owl" for many generations.

Sometime by the 1950s these birds began expanding their range into the Pacific Northwest and breeding with native spotted owls, producing viable young called "sparred owls."

The spotted owl had been listed under the ESA as threatened in 1990 and the supposed cause of its low population numbers was claimed to be logging. This determination resulted in dozens of successful "environmental" lawsuits being filed from that time to the present with the specific focus of stopping the sale and harvesting of commercial timber, and particularly on public forestlands.

In 2007 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hunters began systematically killing barred owls and sparred owls on an "experimental" basis. The sole purpose was to control the breeding process in order to maintain genetic purity. Only these were wild owls, not domestic plants or animals, and ethical concerns were raised immediately. And then ignored.

A little over 10 years ago I wrote about this problem in a lengthy article that I also posted to a national blog of (mostly) retired U.S. Forest Service professionals for discussion. I then presented this perspective in two lectures to graduate students, staff and professors at the College of Forestry and then the Department of Fish and Wildlife at Oregon State University.

These efforts resulted in some meaningful discussions in the public forums, but immediate and adversarial claims of being a racist during my university lectures. Which was my whole point.

I had used polar opposites of the human species — a Pygmy and a Swede — to compare their differences in physiology, vocalizations, diet, coloration, appearance and preferred habitat with those of spotted owls and barred owls. I was challenging current scientific theory and government policies with documentation, but my work could be safely ignored because someone called me a name.

The cost to U.S. society for the purpose of keeping these brown-eyed cousins of owls from having sex has simply been too great for too many years.

The massive economic damage from spotted owl lawsuits — almost entirely funded by taxpayers — is generally well recognized: tens of thousands of lost jobs in the forest industry and U.S. Forest Service; hundreds of sawmill closures; billions of dollars in lost revenues to the U.S. Treasury, states, counties and schools; and the resulting degradation of our rural communities, roads, parks and services.

And, as predicted, millions of acres of so-called "spotted owl critical habitat" have gone up in flames, killing millions of wildlife and polluting the air with deadly smoke.

My thought remains that we need to stop playing God with hoot owls and let nature take its course. As Darwin pointed out, nature favors the "survival of the fittest," and in this instance that seems to be sparred owls.

Link to the longer, older article referenced in this story.

From the Santa Barbara Independent

A tiny owl stranded at sea surprised a local crew boat on the morning of October 6. The boat, which was shuttling workers from the Goleta Pier to Platform Holly, found the western burrowing owl floating in the ocean two miles offshore.

The crew, captains Daniel Madison, Amor Cueva, and Jerry Gereminanao and engineer, Eric Benavidez, of SoCal Ship Services, were heading to the site of Holly’s ongoing decommissioning project. But they stopped to help the little bird — an important member of a declining native species.

“We often see different seabirds who need assistance, but we have never seen an owl in the water,” Captain Madison shared.

After bringing the boat alongside the owl, the crew scooped the bird out of the water using a bucket. It was cold, exhausted, and barely moving, so the crew wrapped it up in towels and let it hang out in the engine room to keep it safe and dry until they could get it to land.

Later, when the boat returned to the Goleta Pier, Angela Rauhut, a volunteer and rescuer with the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network (SBWCN), was waiting for them. She transported the bird to their wildlife hospital on Fairview Avenue, where it was taken immediately into care.

According to the SBWCN, burrowing owls may migrate across the Santa Barbara Channel, so this owl may have been heading to or from the Channel Islands or was diverted by coastal wind or fog. However, the exact circumstances of how it got in the water remain unknown.

These small, 7-10-inch owls prefer open areas like grasslands and deserts, nesting underground in burrows often made by other animals, the SBWCN said. They are certainly not cut out for life at sea.

The owl was in sorry shape when it arrived at the hospital. During its fight for survival in the Pacific Ocean, it got covered in oil, disabling its ability to fly and keep itself warm.

International Bird Rescue Hospital staff diagnosed it with minor oil contamination on its wings and chin, and moderate dehydration. The bird also had swelling in its left leg and a small laceration on its tongue, likely from biting itself during the stressful transport, according to the SBWCN.

In Santa Barbara, the owl was stabilized, fed, and treated to the best of SBWCN’s ability, before being transferred to the specialized hands of their partner organization, the International Bird Rescue, in San Pedro on October 8. Once stabilized, caretakers treated the bird to break down the oil and washed it using dish soap.

The washing process, led by Wildlife Rehabilitation Technician Jeanette Bates and Wildlife Rehabilitation Intern Roaa Abdalla, required extra care and a light sedation. It took 30 minutes of gentle, meticulous cleaning to remove all the oil.

After receiving a top-notch wash and dry from the Bird Rescue, it was transferred back to the SBWCN, where it continued to regain strength and flight stamina while housed in an aviary.

Over the next few days, the owl’s condition fluctuated, the SBWCN said in a press release.“By October 19, the owl’s weight had stabilized at 140 grams, and its feather quality was good, with only minor scabbing on its wings,” it continued.

The owl was still mildly dehydrated after 16 days in care, but was nearing a full recovery. Its leg and tongue eventually healed, with “only a broken tail feather” remaining “as a reminder of its ordeal,” the Care Network said.

This little bird is part of a larger story of conservation. Its species has declined dramatically across California, having been nearly wiped out from a third of its former range. The California Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously earlier this month to make the bird a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act, which will give it protection for the next 12-18 months while wildlife officials decide whether it deserves permanent status as a “threatened” or “endangered” species.

Among other threats such as cars and rodenticide, burrowing owls are losing space to nest and breed due to urban sprawl, agriculture, and clean energy projects and development, including solar farms. Environmental groups are pushing for more renewable energy, but conservationists want the birds’ precious breeding grounds — and their squatters’ rights in other critters’ burrows — to be protected.

For the formerly adrift owl, extra care and attention made the difference between life and death. “It was released to rejoin its migratory path on October 22,” the SBWCN said, “and is now living its best life back in the wild thanks to the work of this amazing community network that helps protect wildlife!”