Last evening we took Hootie over to the Renaissance Academy for a wonderful evening of fun! The theme for the event was Harry Potter and the Academy was decorated to the hilt, upon entering the front door and thru’ the halls as well. Most everyone was dressed up and festitivy was in the air. Some of the classrooms were set up as teaching “dungeons.” Lauren and everybody had done a great job planning and decorating, and the evening was just plain fun! As the classroom groups came into our Owlery Dungeon we talked about adaptations that make Great Horned Owls successful in the wild and we talked about why they’re beneficial, how they improve our quality of life. We talked about other kinds of Colorado owls and answered questions from the audiences. We shared stories with the youngsters about their own owl and wildlife experiences as well. Hootie held up pretty well for the long program and the big audiences.
Another phone call today regarding a bat. This one flew into a Halloween store in Colorado Springs. It appears he may have suffered an injured wing. So once again volunteer Cheryl picked up the little silver-haired bat and took him to a licensed bat rehabilitator for care. Cheryl knows what to do when it comes to safety with bats. Do you? Remember, some bats do carry rabies so if you find a bat please DO NOT handle the bat, or allow children and/or pets to handle the bat. Call us or call the Division of Wildlife during regular business hours at 719-227-5200, or visit us at http://www.ellicottwildlife.com/ and click on the Help button to find a licensed rehabilitator near you.
Can you believe these Merriam’s turkeys arrived as tiny fluffy birds in a shoebox?!
Shane the great-horned owl came to rehab with a head trauma and a crossbeak. The mandible isn’t broken. Now we need to determine if the owl can tear food and feed itself.
Owls at Aiken Audubon Society.
Phil takes a break from digging and planting!
Beautiful maples, crabapples, oak, locust, aspen, and others.
Sabine’s gull or Franklin gull?
Dan, Phil, and Phil replace the twisted old wooden support beam with the new metal beam that will support the lenght of the 100-foot wire ceiling.
The last few weeks have been very busy around here! The intakes are finally slowing down somewhat and the releases are getting done, with several hawks and owls being released, the turkeys gone, the ducks going tomorrow, and songbirds and bunnies having been released. A gull came a few weeks ago with a soft tissue wing injury, not sure if it’s a Sabin’s gull or a Franklin gull, but I definitely am sure that bird is eating us out of house and home! Now that he can fly again we’re hoping for a release in the very, very near future! The raptor flight expansion project is coming along well, with some scheduled workdays and unscheduled workdays (thanks, Phil and Phil!) Designs by Sundown of Englewood made a very generous donation of almost 30 very large, healthy trees. Boy, what a challenge getting all those 300-pound trees from Englewood to Ellicott! But we eventually got it done with the help of volunteer Tom and his big truck and trailer, and help from a few other DOW volunteers, so they made it safely and then Phil spent several days getting the big trees with the enormous root balls planted! Hopefully these will do well and provide some much-needed shade in and around the outdoor enclosures. Thank you Leslie, Roger, and Reg! Thanks to lots of help from Volunteer Match volunteers, we made significant progress with educational presentations and were able to test-drive our brand new edu materials at programs, including an owl program for Aiken Audubon Society. So here it is, end of October, and we’re still keeping very busy!