Who you lookin at? 🦉
This gorgeous Great Horned Owl had an unfortunate run in with old fishing line left in a tree and was found hanging by his right wing. After being cut from the line, the finders brought him straight to us to check for further injuries.
This owl was incredibly lucky and no bones were broken and no open wounds were found. He was however, suffering from exhaustion and some pretty impressive bruising. After a week of pain medications and plenty of time to recover from his exhaustion, this owl had a final checkup and is now ready for release. Our medical assistants couldn't be more thrilled to get this feisty flier back to the wild... and to never have to give oral medications to him again (he wasn't the happiest or most coopeative of patients).
Please always clean up after yourself when you are out fishing. Line left in trees is incredibly dangerous for our birds. Birds of prey, like this owl, have terrific eyesight, but aren't able to see the line before it's too late. Fishing line wrapped around their delicate skin and feathers most often results in damage that can't always be repaired or requires months and months of care to get the bird back to flying shape.
Such big beautiful eyes. I think he'd do very well in a staring contest.
They have amazing muscle control over their eyes, so if they got the rules down, I'm sure they'd be amazing! They can dilate their pupils at will and independent of one another, which is always kinda cool. They've also got nictitating membranes to keep their eyes nice and moist while flying without losing full vision.
I want to say they wink/blink more when they see me, but less when they know I'm there but can't see me, but I will have to pay closer attention to that next season.