I keep seeing all the local rescues posting all their various babies coming in. I'm back in action on the 15th to get a head start before the new volunteers come in April.
I'll probably share the egg story on Wed, as we're in the time of year where the chatter feels dead in here. I always get bummed sharing something I think is awesome and it feels like nobody sees it. I get so bored posting all this stuff and nobody comments. At least I know by now it isn't me doing something wrong, Lemmy just seems to go stagnant around this time.
From Guy Lacroix
I had been photographing this Northern Hawk Owl hunting rodents in a field. He suddenly flew to the top of a spruce tree and hid amongst its cones. Soon after, a Red-tailed Hawk flew over us. That's when I realized that the Northern Hawk Owl had recognized this Red- tailed Hawk as a predator and had sought refuge. It worked. The Red-tailed Hawk never saw him and just flew on by.
Northern Hawk Owl / Surnia ulula
Greater Ottawa area
From Blackland Prairie Raptor Center
Did you know that owls can control each of their plumicorns (ear tufts) individually? This Great Horned Owl is giving us a demonstration of its plumicorns.
From Edwin Godinho
Dark knight - The Tawny-browed owl (Pulsatrix koeniswaldiana) is a species of owl in the family Strigidae. It is found in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.
Atlantic forest, São Paulo, Brasil
From Sriram Udhaya
🦉When alarm goes at wrong time time ⏲️ and if i dont see the bright sun ☀️ 🦉🦉🦉
I'd say anyone not planning to get screwed by this administration is doing their people a disservice.
I am happy to see the Scouts give some push back. It frankly seems more than some leaders/countries are willing to do.
Other than their initial confrontation, there haven't been any further ones, have there? I'm going both groups are busy enough they'll have no need to worry about the other. They ultimately both have to do what they think is best for their families overall, and that can seem quite sad or cruel to us.
I have a good post for sometime this week about a pair of animal ambassadors with dud eggs and how the rehab center still lets them feel like good parents. It involves some sneakiness and trickery, but everyone wins in the end!
Hey, I've seen this guy somewhere before... 🤔
Oh yeah!
Yup, screw any non-discriminatory animal control. I work at a wildlife rescue and we have to pull birds and all kinds of animals off those things, and it's just plain cruel to rodents as well.
From reading other articles and pieces from people associated with Scouts, while they don't get any money from the government, that isn't to say they don't get perks.
$1/yr leases for public land, access to property/equipment, logistical support/medical staffing for the Jamboree, jet flyovers, etc that help them stretch their funds or provide things they would t be able to access without the government's support.
The Jamboree is a 10 day event this July, so all that staffing provided by the gov is probably a huge expense, and if Hegseth pulled all that now or in the future, they'd be screwed. So essentially, this is coercion to get what they want.
Great job to both mommas for sticking it out despite the interloper!
It reminds me of cartoons/family sitcoms where two people are arguing and divide the room with a line to separate them only to have further drama ensue.
Best of luck to both families! 🦉❤️🪿
This is really good! 😄
From Mike Cohen
During the course of the week, I only saw three voles caught, and one was caught by a Great Blue Heron. That's a lot of hunting with not much to show for it. We could hear something making calls from the grass and speculated that the owls diet consisted of the bug or frog making that noise. Hard to believe a frog could live in such cold weather but who knows.
This Shortie gave me the best series of pictures carrying his catch to a nearby pole, after which either lunch or a cache for later. I learned from the locals, familiar with the owls, that they often cache their catch! The color behind the bird came from leafless vegetation well behind the bird.
(Short-eared Owl - Asio flammeus). (Sony alii, 400-800 lens @ 800mm, f/8, 1/2000 second, ISO 1600)
From Jen Marie
The screech owl and the moon.
One thing I love about photography is seeing all the creative perspectives different photographers can find while looking at the exact same subject. Last night, I had been watching this owl for a bit when my friend came up and immediately said, 'I bet we can get him with the moon.' Sure enough, I moved over 20 feet and it lined up perfectly. I think teamwork helps everyone improve their skills as a whole.
From Gigi Lautard
The barn owl (Tyto alba) is a species of owl formerly known as the fearful owl or white lady.
The species inhabits every continent except Antarctica and certain islands. It is the most widespread species of Strigiformes in the world.
The barn owl is the subject of many legends and ghost stories.
Indeed, its hooting, shrill cries, ghostly flight, and cavorting in the attic where it roosts all lent credence to its spectral presence. In the Middle Ages, the owl was a symbol of heresy.
It appears around 40 times in the works of Hieronymus Bosch, including in The Temptation of Saint Anthony (it is painted on the head of the character following Saint Anthony).
This bad reputation of the “white lady” led to her being nailed to the doors of the barns she inhabited, a practice that was supposed to protect against storms, ward off disease, ward off bad luck, and scare away other owls.
This bad reputation is attested to by Buffon in 1780, who wrote about the barn owl:
"It makes various shrill sounds, all so unpleasant that, combined with the idea of its proximity to cemeteries and churches, and the darkness of night, it inspires horror and fear in children, women, and even men who are subject to the same prejudices and who believe in ghosts, witches, and omens.
They regard the barn owl as an omen of death, a messenger of death; they believe that when it settles on a house and utters a cry that differs from its usual call, it is summoning someone to the cemetery."
The barn owl gives its name to one of the first collections by the poet Philippe Jaccottet, L'Effraie.
French text
L' Effraie des clochers (Tyto alba), est une chouette anciennement appelée Chouette effraie ou dame blanche.
L'espèce peuple tous les continents, à l'exception de l'Antarctique et certaines îles. C'est l'espèce de Strigiformes la plus répandue au monde.
L'Effraie est à la base de nombreuses légendes et d'histoires de fantômes.
En effet, par ses chuintements, les cris stridents, son vol fantomatique et ses cavalcades dans le grenier qui lui sert de gîte, tout accréditait une présence spectrale. Au Moyen Âge, la chouette était le symbole de l'hérésie.
Elle apparaît ainsi environ 40 fois dans les œuvres de Jérôme Bosch dont dans La Tentation de Saint-Antoine (elle est peinte sur la tête du personnage qui suit saint Antoine).
Cette mauvaise réputation de la < dame blanche » lui a valu d'être clouée sur les portes des granges qu'elle habitait, une pratique qui était censée protéger des orages, chasser la maladie, conjurer le mauvais sort et faire peur aux autres chouettes.
Cette mauvaise réputation est attestée par Buffon en 1780 qui écrit à propos de l'effraie:
Elle pousse différents sons aigres, tous si désagréables, que cela, joint à l'idée du voisinage des cimetières et des églises, et encore à l'obscurité de la nuit, inspire de l'horreur et de la crainte aux enfants, aux femmes, et même aux hommes soumis aux mêmes préjugés et qui croient aux revenants, aux sorciers, aux augures.
Ils regardent l'effraie comme l'oiseau funèbre, le messager de la mort; ils croient que quand elle se fixe sur une maison, et qu'elle y fait retentir une voix différente de ses cris ordinaires, c'est pour appeler quelqu'un au cimetière ».
L'Effraie des clochers donne son nom à l'un des premiers recueils du poète Philippe Jaccottet, L'Effraie.
Thankfully today, for much of the world, attitudes about owls have changed.
The Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux (LPO) is now hanging up owl signs promoting One Owl, One Village to promote the fact having an owl in your neighborhood shows the signs of having a healthy and balanced local ecosystem.
From Giroussens Town Hall
The League for the Protection of Birds (LPO) officially unveiled the "One Owl, One Village" plaque today, marking the local commitment to biodiversity. The presence of barn owls in Giroussens is an excellent indicator of the quality of life in the community. As part of this partnership with the LPO, plans are also underway to involve schools and residents in activities related to local wildlife (a refuge area around the school, the installation of educational beehives, etc.).
French text
La Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux (LPO) a officiellement posé la plaque aujourd'hui "Une chouette, un village", marquant l'engagement local en faveur de la biodiversité. La présence de chouettes effraies à Giroussens est un excellent indicateur de la qualité du cadre de vie communal.
Dans le cadre de ce partenariat avec la LPO, il est également prévu d'associer les écoles et les habitants à des actions autour de la faune locale (zone refuge autour de l'école, installation de ruches pédagogiques
From Hoo's Woods
Aww we love this, Timber found his Valentine!
Valentine and Timber sitting in a tree, H-O- O- T- I- N- G! First came rescue, then comes ? Tell us how their story ends. Valentine, is the larger female Great Horned Owl standing in the back, recovering beautifully from head trauma. Timber, the handsome male in front, is healing from a barbed wire injury that could have ended very differently. He was given less than a 30% chance of recovery, but thanks to our amazing vets and staff he did it!.
Both are flying very well, building strength each day, and their prognosis for release is very good. And yes, we will release them together.
There's a whole lot of Hoo Hoo Hoo going on at Hoo's Woods!
Animals that get rehabbed need to be releasable, so getting used to humans is not in their best interest. The only handling we do with them is to treat them and is kept to a minimum.
I wouldn't say that any of the animals appreciate us, but some are calmer than others, and some will occasionally visit after release or even bring friends back looking for food or a safe spot to spend the day/night.
Some of the young released hawks will hang around as they develop their hunting skills, vultures will bring their new friends back to roost for a bit, we have a blue jay that has stayed for years that acts like it owns the place and will steal from the food we're bringing out to current residents.
But for the most part, they seem to feel like most of us would, were we to be abducted by aliens, probed, studied, and put on exhibit for a few weeks or months. We'd be wondering what was going on the whole time because we don't understand their species whatsoever, and we'd be glad when we finally got dropped back off on Earth and try to put the whole ordeal behind us, even if they never did anything aggressive to us and cured our diseases we never even knew we had.
And that's what we want! We want to be a brief, hopefully minimally traumatic interruption of their lives. Our goal is to put them right back where they were before whatever event brought them in to us. And that includes their previous distrust of humans. Over 90% of their injuries are due to us or our pets or property. So keeping them grumpy with us is one of the best things we can do for them.
It takes some mental adjustment on my part to tell myself them fighting me and biting me, and being uncooperative pains in my butt is the best thing I could experience, but I'm here for their benefit, not my own. I'm still happy to get all the time up close with them though and learning about all these amazing animals.
From Dion White
Sharon and I were walking the woods behind the house like we've done so many evenings before. The sky was on fire, that deep burnt-orange kind of sunset that makes you stop mid-sentence.
I had the Canon R5 Mark II paired with the RF 200-800mm, because experience has taught me something simple: if you leave the long lens at home, the forest will punish you for it.
And right on cue, this barred owl came in silent.
No wing noise. No branch snap. Just a sudden presence.
It locked in on that branch, wings spread against the sky like it was stepping into a painting. I didn't have time to finesse settings.
1/1000 of a second - freeze the motion.
f/9 - enough depth for those wings.
ISO 12,800 - because the light was fading fast.
ISO 12,800 isn't glamorous. It's survival. But sometimes you take the shot first and deal with the cleanup later. We carefully worked the noise without destroying the feather detail, because the goal isn't plastic perfection - it's preserving the moment.
Sharon looked at me and said, "Did you get it?"
Yeah. I got it.
And here it is.
YouTube channel promotion for upcoming how-to on how this photo was done and app promotion. It's here if you're interested, or just keep on reading if it's not relevant to your interests.
Now here's the part most people don't see:
I filmed the behind-the-scenes of this entire moment - the settings, the decision-making, how we cleaned up ISO 12,800 without turning it into watercolor mush. That full breakdown will be going up on PhotoBeast.
If you're trying to grow as a photographer, this is exactly the kind of real-world scenario that teaches more than perfect daylight examples ever could.
I'm also over halfway done building the PhotoBeast Masterclass for Beginning Photographers - designed to take someone from "I just bought a camera" to confidently understanding exposure, composition, and field decision-making.
And on top of that, I'm building something I wish existed when I started: an app called ShutterJudge. It's designed to help new photographers analyze their images and understand what's working - and what isn't - without guesswork.
Because talent grows faster when feedback is honest.
If you want to see the behind-the-scenes of this shot, learn how to handle extreme ISO situations, and follow along as we build tools for photographers who are serious about improving - make sure you're subscribed to PhotoBeast on YouTube.
The forest rewards preparation.
And photographers who study their craft? They start catching moments like this on purpose.
A follow up to this post.
From Blue Ridge Wildlife Center
Patient update!
Our anticoagulant rodenticide great horned owl patient is not out of the woods yet, but they have moved to a pre-release enclosure - the final step before release!
Anticoagulant rodenticide toxicosis often requires a lengthy hospital stay due to the long half-life of the poison. Anticoagulant rodenticide comes in two forms: First-generation, most commonly Warfarin, and second- generation, most commonly brodifacoum and bromadiolone. The most significant difference between these two generations is the length of time that the poison stays in the body.
The first generation rodenticide, which is less commonly used, has a half-life of roughly 10-14 days. Second generation anticoagulant rodenticide has a half life reportedly weeks to months, with some studies estimating the presence of the poison persisting for over over 300 days! This is important because it dictates the length of time we must providing the antidote: Vitamin K.
We started treatment with three daily Vitamin K injections along with fluid therapy to help treat hypovolemia, or low blood volume. Once more stable, we decreased Vitamin K supplementation to once daily and treatment will continue at this level until this patient is clotting normally. The difficulty in this treatment is we don't always know how long we will need to treat - we can only go off of research and documented protocols.
After a two week course of treatment and a few days off to clear the supplemental vitamin K, we retested the blood. While this patient's anemia had largely resolved, clotting times were still VERY delayed. Blood did not clot until over an hour after sample collection. Ongoing clotting delays mean that this owl will need continued treatment. If released in this condition, a minor trauma could lead to this owl bleeding to death.
The good news is that this patient has been feeling much better! Given the owl's high stress levels in indoor hospital caging, our veterinary team decided it was time to upgrade to an outside enclosure. This owl will continue to receive vitamin K orally by injecting this patient's food with the needed supplement, minimizing the need for stressful handling.
Our previous social media post on this patient discussed the prevalence of rodenticides in our wildlife and why rodenticides are not considered a humane form of pest control. It is important to reiterate that this poison impacts more than just the intended rodents and builds up in the food chain, often killing our apex predators and scavengers. As explained, treatment time can be very long and can negatively impact the animal's well being. We remain hopeful for this owl and will continue to monitor closely.
From Scottish Owl Centre
The 3 states of being for a White-faced Owl, brought to you by Ms. Rubi and her husband.
Chilled out (puffed and fluffed!)
Suspicious (skinny and 'stick-like!')
Grumpy ('tiny, angry turkey!')
All of this anger was simply because the human had the audacity to come into his territory and provide him with a fresh, clean bath (How very dare I?!)
They're not colloquially nicknamed the 'Transformer Owl' for nothing! These extreme shape-changing skills are a vital survival tool for owls in the wild - and in some species the 'transformation' is more extreme than in others!
From VLAB - Verein für Landschaftspflege, Artenschutz & Biodiversität e. V.
German Text
In Deutschland brüten zehn Eulenarten - doch nicht allen geht es gut.
Vom anpassungsfähigen Waldkauz bis zum seltenen Habichtskauz zeigt jede Art, wie wichtig alte Bäume, Totholz und strukturreiche Wälder sind. Wer Offenland und Gewässer schützt und Lebensräume erhält, sorgt zugleich dafür, dass diese faszinierenden Nachtjäger weiter sicher brüten können.
Die Übersicht basiert auf aktuellen Daten des Dachverbands Deutscher Avifaunisten (DDA) sowie eigenen Erhebungen.
Ten owl species breed in Germany – but not all of them are thriving.
From the adaptable Tawny owl to the rare Ural owl, each species demonstrates the importance of old trees, deadwood, and structurally diverse forests. Protecting open land and waterways and preserving habitats ensures that these fascinating nocturnal hunters can continue to breed safely.
This overview is based on current data from the German Ornithologists' Association (DDA) and our own research.
I had to translate the graphic they included. If you want the original, it's under the spoiler tag with the original text.
I'll have to get by on 2 out of 3. I'm always too hot for the flannel. 🥵