Creating a different view, for visitors AND animals

We decided a while ago that it was time to change the perches and trees out of the barred owl exhibit. Seeing as how spare time is precious around here, it wasn’t until last week that Jill and I finally got around to setting our plan in motion. We already had a nice big perching tree ready to go in the exhibit, so last Tuesday we put the tree in while doing a superclean of the exhibit. We still haveRead more

Early AM Birding

This morning I came in at 7:00 am and heard our barred owls (Strix varia) calling. We have 4 owls who live together. Their call is really neat; many birders describe it as sounding like “Who cooks for you, who cooks for you alllllllll” . Every once in a while I’ll hear them call during the day, but usually it’s in the early morning when I notice it. If you’d like to hear what they sound like, go to theRead more

A Glimpse at Barred Owl Veterinary Care

At first glance, you may not be able to tell that the picture above is a Barred Owl wrapped up in a “towel burrito”, but take a good look and you can see her head sticking out of one side! You might also notice the small scale underneath the Owl, as she is actually being weighed. Wrapping large birds into towels is an easy and effective way of handling them so that they cannot flap their wings and injure themselves.Read more