The 2017 Owl Renesting Season begins!
April 1, 2017 9:16 PM   Subscribe

Every spring for the past four years, a team of volunteers with the Four Lakes Wildlife Center in Dane County, WI renest baby owls who have fallen out of their (often poorly built) homes. Newspaper article from last year and related photoset. Facebook albums (read the captions!): 2017 owl renesting season episode #1 and episode #2
posted by rockindata (12 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
I love owls so much. So so much. The owl in the photo stream looked like an adult? The site was twitchy for me so I couldn't figure out what was going on. I have been watching a lot of game warden shows lately and owls seem to fall from trees fairly often. These tv shows are heartening because they shine a spotlight on people who give a shit about animal & land welfare. I have plenty of complaints about these shows as well but this is not the time or place. GO Owlets!
posted by futz at 9:44 PM on April 1, 2017


I can't be the only person who read that as "The 2017 Owl Resenting Season begins," can I?
posted by evidenceofabsence at 11:40 PM on April 1, 2017 [5 favorites]


Great line: “They just take over a nest,” Kraak said. “A couple of sticks together.”

What a cool gig.
posted by rhizome at 11:44 PM on April 1, 2017


The Facebook albums are adorable! What great work they're doing.
posted by ellieBOA at 12:33 AM on April 2, 2017


I love owls but hate Facebook. Sigh.
posted by kinnakeet at 2:34 AM on April 2, 2017 [2 favorites]


The FB photosets are so cool - and the captions are delightful. Love this! (sorry kinnakeet ).
posted by leslies at 5:28 AM on April 2, 2017 [1 favorite]


This makes me think less of owls. Lazy bullies, basically. Force another bird out of its nest, then do nothing to fix the place up. Kids fall out and die because parents made no safety improvements.
posted by clawsoon at 6:06 AM on April 2, 2017 [1 favorite]


The owl in the photo stream looked like an adult?

Some are adults in the photostream, but others like this adorable one eating a mouse (sorry mouse) are babies, and you can see how big it is compared to the mouse and person's hand. Anyway, baby great horned owls are pretty huge for baby birds. Wikipedia says adult great horned owls have wingspans of 3-5 FEET, so I guess it's relative. But they are still so fuzzy and cute!
posted by pangolin party at 8:38 AM on April 2, 2017


Put those Muppets back in the Sesame Workshop, where they belong.
posted by cichlid ceilidh at 8:50 AM on April 2, 2017 [2 favorites]


Those muppets are just skeksis in a puffy coat.
posted by cmfletcher at 10:29 AM on April 2, 2017


All you have to do is follow the...oh, goodness...

The technical term for what you’re seeing is Mute, from here on out I’ll likely refer to it as poop. A large quantity like this is a great indicator that a tree is frequently used as a hang out. It’s another sign we’re excited to see when searching for a nest. It isn’t necessarily the tree where the nest is located but is a sign that we’re probably on the right track.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:33 PM on April 2, 2017


The lady from the raptor rescue that came to my kids' preschool casually suggested we all put up owl boxes in our backyards, and now I am beginning to see why.
posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 10:09 PM on April 3, 2017


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