Catching up with the Owlets in Rehab

I paid a visit to Tom's River Avian Care to check on the owlets progress. Turns out they are doing well and should be releasable by the end of summer. The littlest one had a broken leg from his fall but its all healed and now he just needs to exercise it. The eldest is mostly flighted and has a great mistrust for people which is great! I also got to visit a few of their other charges such as this adult male Great Horned Owl which was hit by a car. They also had an osprey which had been electrocuted by landing on a high tension wire. TRAC is the only raptor rescue center south of the Raritan and serves all of Central and South Jersey. At their peak they get over 1000 birds a year, many of them birds of prey. If you have a sick or injured bird, please give them a call!

Great Horned Owlet Rescue Part 2

So the eldest chick had been doing great all by himself. Strong enough to cling to branches there was enough space to hold on. As it has grown though it had started branching a bit and two days ago I had hard time finding him cuz he was out on a limb huddled next to mom. In the morning light this was the best pic and getting another angle proved impossible. Ever since I got the youngest baby mom has not been as relaxed around me so I left in order not to stress them. The problem was that when I returned in the late afternoon, everybody was gone! Turns out the little bugger decided to fledge a tad early! It took about 2 hours of scouring the woods but finally there he was, back in the woods by the stream! We scooped him up as he is still too young to fly. There's no doubt he can jump/flap but without any developed tail feathers this guy would be easy prey for a fox. Hopefully we can release him and the other owlet in about 2 weeks time.