From World Bird Sanctuary

I love that there are still things that owl volunteers do that I had never heard of yet!

This GHO baby was being returned to its nest, but it was found to be in poor condition. Baby was too small to be on the ground or a branch by itself, so it got upgraded to a new nest the rescue had in hand for such an occasion! Since all owl nests are used nests, I’m sure they took no offense to it but being brand new.

Baby season has officially started! Yesterday we got our first baby call of the year, a Great Horned Owlet who had been seen on the ground since the day before. Our first choice is to leave these babies in the care of their wild parents, so two of our hospital team members went out to the nest site to do a field exam and try and locate the nest.

The baby did not sustain any injuries from their fall and had clearly been well cared for and recently fed by the parents. Both parents were spotted in nearby trees and could be heard hooting at us as we looked over their baby. We were able to narrow the location of the nest down to a trio of trees but could not confirm the exact location. The potential nest we were able to see, was small and had partially collapsed so we would not be able to put the baby back in it.

This baby is too young to be on the ground or get itself back up into a tree, but is old enough to maintain their body temperature without a parent constantly sitting on them. Since putting them back in the original nest was not an option, we elected to bring the baby back to our hospital and then return shortly after with a surrogate nest to put the baby back in. Both parents could still be heard as we secured the new nest and put the baby in it.

With baby season started, our hospital will get progressively busier. You can help keep our hospital stocked by shopping from our Amazon Baby Registry. Registry link in the comments below or can be found by putting World Bird Sanctuary into Amazon’s Baby Registry search. This year, our registry is focused on items that will help us expand and improve our patient housing. Pet carriers allow us to expand our indoor housing after our veterinary cages get full. Lowes gift cards allow us to purchase lumbar for making new outdoor aviaries. Our patient load has nearly doubled over the last 6 years and we are working hard to keep up with patient housing needs to continue providing care to every patient that needs it.