Saturday, April 21, 2007

Living in trees can be dangerous!

Even birds do not fare well in the winds of a nor’easter. Storm-rattled baby owl found, rescued
ROCKPORT (April 20): Monday's nor'easter not only wreaked havoc for human residents up and down the coast this week, but it also apparently disrupted at least one winged family in Rockport.
Aldermere Farm Manager Ron Howard said that farmhands Jeff Sweeting and Kevin Walters discovered a baby great horned owl on the ground Thursday morning while driving through the woods on an access road.


Aah, but do not fear, the little tyke is doing just fine.
Winn said Friday that the owl is doing fine, and that the injuries to its wings, likely sustained as it fell and scraped on tree branches, had already improved a little since it arrived.
Winn said that plans had just been made to send the owlet to Cape Neddick for further recovery.

"This owl is near an age for imprinting and we do not want it to imprint on humans," she said. "We don't have an adult great horned owl here now, but we know someone in Cape Neddick who has a surrogate parent bird. It's important right now for the owl to recover in the presence of an adult owl."

When that recovery is complete, Winn said, plans could be made to bring it back to Rockport, where it was hatched. Winn said that Howard will need to confirm that the parents are still nearby, and check on the condition of the nest.

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