Alice the Great Horned Owl is a permanently injured owl who works at the Houston Nature Center in Houston, MN and lives with her handler, Karla Bloem. Rusty and Iris are Great Horned Owls that are both blind in their right eyes and cannot live in the wild. Rusty and Iris are breeding in captivity as part of Karla's vocal study on Great Horned Owls. All together they have led to the creation of an International Owl Center in Houston, MN and an International Festival of Owls.
Wednesday, April 03, 2013
Visit from Rhett and Delilah 9:35 pm, 4-2-13
Rhett and Delilah are the current resident wild pair. They were in the yard around an ON Rusty and Iris' enclosure for an hour or more last night. Iris and Rusty became quite agitated, hooting and flying around. Toward the end of the video you'll hear some banging...that was Rusty climbing up the chain link on the inside of the enclosure near the bath pan. Even the owlets started learning to hoot with little squeaky voices! It was quite the night.
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So much going on! This site is so interesting to watch. The owlets are growing so fast. What an opportunity to see the how owls interact!
ReplyDeleteWill it be a problem, a danger, for the owlets once they have grown enough and are then released that they will be in another owl pair's nesting area, and that their own parents will not be free to defend them? Will the territorial defense be less vigorous as I'm assuming this will be late summer, possibly early fall?
ReplyDeleteThe young won't be released before they would normally be kicked out by mom and dad. I don't think the parents defend them after they're "on their own"...as I understand it they just zip their lips and try to stay out of everyone's way. We'll find out if that holds true. They are located on the border of two territories, including a single male, so that should be to their advantage.
DeleteWill any of the young (or all) receive radio telemetry to study where they dispurse to?
ReplyDeleteIt would be great to put telemetry on the owlets to track them. So far I haven't put much thought into in, pricing, time commitment, or any of that. Email me if you have suggestions or cost estimates.
DeleteI've sent an e-mail to the web administrator for the Raptor Resource Project, attention Bob Anderson. He's the one in "charge" of the most famous Decorah Eagles web cam project . . . who disappointed us all this year and moved the nest (the eagles, not Bob). They have placed long term radio transmitters on two of the eagles produced in the nest these last two years. Perhaps they could give info about the equipment they are using. I invited them to come visit your site. If I get a reply I'll let you know.
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