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Newsletter 2019 May.Pdf THE OWL FOUNDATION NEWS 4117 21st Street, R.R. 1, Vineland Station, Ontario L0R 2E0 905-562-5986 Charitable Registration Number 12431-5094-RR0001 www.theowlfoundation.ca May 2019 A memorial service was held in May for one of our founders, Kay McKeever, who died April 4. (If you didn't receive the obituary from us, it can be found by internet search on Kay's name.) At the memorial several speakers kindly shared their stories about her, and we saw photos from her life. Kay retired from managing the Foundation ten years ago. We carry on the work that Kay and Larry started. Within restrictions of our government permits, we continue to help unreleasable wild owls in our care to enrich their own lives, and contribute to their kind, as parents and foster parents of releasable wild owls. We are preparing to release the young hatched and raised here in 2018, consisting of four Great Grey Owls from Fanny and Fred, one from Petra and Scotty, and four Snowy Owls from SassyQ and Yeti. More Great Grey young have been hatched this year by Fanny and Fred, and Petra and Scotty. Great Grey Sonata is incubating again (her eggs last year did not hatch). SassyQ is also incubating eggs. Some residents are fostering (page 2). Some resident owls have died since our last newsletter. In February we lost one of our oldest residents, the Barn Owl called Banjo, who died from an obstructed bowel. Banjo and his mate Soucy (died 2013) came to us in 1999. Banjo and Soucy hatched and raised many young that were released, and the last young from 2004, who are still with us as residents, as we were no longer allowed to release Barn Owls and had to block further breeding. An unreleasable Long- Eared Owl that we had for a year and that had just been approved by the government as a resident, was found dead. Necropsy indicated intestinal cancer. In March we lost the resident Barred Owl called Blink after a long illness. She had been with us since 2012 and had raised orphaned Barred Owls we received. In May a long-term resident Short-eared Owl called St. Kitt died, of causes to be determined. We have added two new residents, a Snowy Owl and a Saw-whet Owl. Our two female Barn Owl siblings have shared an aviary for years, and had occasional conflicts. We renovated an adjacent outdoor aviary to make it suitable for a Barn Owl, so the two are now living in separate quarters. We renovated the north half of the roof of Fanny and Fred's home aviary, as part of our continuing program of repairing and strengthening roofs in old aviaries. The building of the large new 3-unit aviary for resident Barred Owls continued through fall, winter and spring as weather and resources permitted. The coverings of the aviary are nearing completion. Finally, thank you to you, our sponsors. Without your Snowy Owl from Saugeen Shores on-going interest and support we couldn't continue with arrived with a broken wing. our work. "Owl" of us here thank you for giving a 'hoot'. Now in release training. Page 2 Spring = Babies You cannot have a spring newsletter and not talk about cute fuzzy BABIES!!! The Owl Foundation is unique in that we have captive resident wild owls with all the On- tario species represented. We are able to draw upon their mothering instincts to help us raise impressionable young owlets. This year we would like to give a big hoot out to three fabulous Mommies and one super Dad; Big Red, a Great Horned Owl; Pearl, an Eastern Screech Owl; Jenny, a Barred Owl; and Wawa, a Great Horned Owl fos- ter dad. Baby season always starts with Great Horned Owls. They are the first owl spe- cies to nest in Ontario. We had a bit of a delayed start this season and Big Red wasn’t initially keen on the parenting idea when the first orphan arrived. She had not yet gone to nest and laid her own eggs First ophan admission of the year - a Great Horned Owlet (which helps to get her in the mood). We were impressed when she took on one after another, after another...and then one more. Big Red had her wings full at one point with eight little fuzz balls. Usually we try and cap her at six but she didn’t hesitate and seemed unfazed with her large brood of nestlings. Luckily a few were close to branching out so she didn’t have eight owlets all clambering for her attention for very long. In less than a week we were able to take her three oldest and move them in with Wawa. Wawa didn't take long in showing his protec- tive instincts. Pearl our Screech Owl was more easily convinced as she was already in the mood. She was happy with her little addition, quickly taking him under her body. We check in on her owlet more frequently as he came in with a fractured wing. She keeps him so covered that it is hard to even see that he is there. His wing bones are mending but only time will tell if the fracture has affected how the bone will grow and develop. Next to be of assistance is Jenny, who has been with us since 1997, making her over 22 years of age (she was admitted as an adult owl). Over the years she has helped raise 16 Wawa with two branching owlets owlets. However the last time her mothering Page 3 love was required was back in 2012. Orphaned Barred owls are not commonly found. We have had a few fledglings admitted since 2012 but those individuals were not in need of a surro- gate. They were starting their journey to inde- pendence and needed only our release condi- tioning spaces to hone their skills. When we got the call from Shades of Hope Wildlife Refuge in Pefferlaw, Ontario followed by a picture of a day old infant owlet, we were a bit concerned. Jenny had not laid her own eggs since 2016. (It is possible, considering her age, that her reproductive system is no longer active. The lifespan in captivity for Barred Owls may only be up to 30 years. Jupiter, a past resident Barred Owl that arrived as an adult was with us for 25 years. Our little Barred Owlet, like Humpty Dumpty, had had a great fall...of about 40 feet. The per- Pearl in her nesting box with orphan son who found the owlet almost stepped on it while out in the bush. Due to the nest height and location deep in the bush, it made the attempt to put it back up in the tree nearly impossible. The owlet arrived hypothermic. The little guy had to stay inside under heat as we couldn’t be sure that Jenny would enter her nest and care for the owlet. We also wanted to carefully monitor his digestion, the fall could have caused some inter- nal damage. As soon as this little guy was able to start keeping himself warm without the addi- tional heat we placed him in Jenny’s nest box. As his contact calls were not quite loud enough, we used a cell phone to play recorded calls in the box. We hoped to entice Jenny to go investigate. Unfortunately she wasn’t convinced it was her re- sponsibility though she was certainly curious as to why baby calls were coming from her box. By the end of the day, (not to worry, we were feeding the owlet at regular intervals and keeping a close eye) with the cooling night temperatures he was brought back inside. A second attempt was made a few days later. This time there was a big difference in his ability to project his calls, no phone was needed. We placed him back in the nesting box. Just as we were prepared to go up the ladder and feed him inside the nest box, lo and behold, who comes flying out of the box? Jenny! We quickly left the area. We hoped she would return to the box and eureka...success. By end of day, Jenny was in full Mom mode, she was feeding him and keeping Newly hatched Barred Owl, note egg tooth him warm. She just couldn't resist his cuteness. Page 4 Barred Owl Admission Numbers Up The Owl Foundation has been in operation for over 40 years. During this time we have maintained records for the species that have been admitted, their injury details, and their outcomes. This information can be useful in many ways. It can tell us the most common reason for admission within an owl species. We can analyze the numbers and look for patterns. Is one species more at risk than another for specific injury types? Is one group more susceptible to window strikes than another? When comparing admission numbers by species, is there a pattern that is cyclical? Many answers to these questions are simply theories or inferences and more data would be needed but it does make for interesting conversations and can lead to potential future studies. In our May 2018 newsletter we talked about Snowy Owl admissions being unusually high and that Snowy Owl movements into Southern Ontario had become more frequent and less “cyclical”. At the time the article was written we were at 21 Snowy Owl admissions. At the close of 2018 we numbered 32. Adult Barred Owl This past fall, winter and spring we saw an increase in Barred Owl admissions.
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