Working on putting great horned owl young back up in trees April, 2025

moss

moss

Been here much more than a while
Location
Carlisle, Massachusetts, U.S.
It's pretty well known among raptor experts that great horned owl young can do quite well being fed on the ground after falling out of a nest. They typically fall in the northeast U.S. during early spring storm events. If they don't suffer fractures on ground impact (many do) they can be fed by the parents and continue maturing on the ground. If they are already mature enough they will climb up tree trunks (nest tree or not) to get away from ground predators. They'll have decent chance of survival.

The GHO nestling I was called in to help out with had ended up in a backyard dog run a good 300' from the nest tree in a stand of white pines. Pretty amazing it got that far. Owl didn't have a chance in proximity to a pitbull on a long backyard lead. After a rehabber that I work with vetted the owl for injuries and declared it good to go I was tasked with finding the nest and putting it back up. Or making a new nest if the original nest wasn't found. This is the adventure that followed. Along the way a second young owl was found, I put that one up too after we gave it a thorough exam.


-AJ
 
Just wow! What a good cause for tree climbing skills. Those still pics are awesome.

You mentioned steps taken to ensure owlets weren't clubbed via green rope removal, jw if that was a risk when end of red SRT rope was pulled free.

Great work, keep it up!

Ha, what a life-
"Well, my bro and I were actually born, ok hatched, near the top of a nice, tall, skinny, white pine. We were doing fine until a couple days ago when we both got blown out of the nest by storm winds. I have no idea how I survived the fall uninjured but I did. Didn't know where my bro landed but I just kinda chilled on the ground for awhile. Mom, well, she's all about tough love so she didn't seem upset, I guess she figures what doesn't kill us makes us stronger so she kept an eye on us and hooted some to console us. So anyway, some alien kinda things, I guess they're called humans, they came along and scooped me up which got me pretty scared, I was on auto pilot flapping my wings trying to run away but they got me. I'm not sure why they bothered bc they didn't kill me and I actually sensed good vibes from them. So after a spell, they put me in like a soft, portable tree cavity and it was very cool bc they found my brother and put him in there with me. Next thing I know, we are being hoisted up into a tall nearby pine by another alien and he then shooed us out of the soft cavity and into this really bizarre nest. I mean, the nest was weird though it actually felt pretty good, maybe better than our old nest. I was real happy to be up high up again, it just felt way better than hanging out on the ground. That night, mom brought us each a dead mouse which we swallowed whole. Oh, it's good to be back home!"
 
cory said:
Just wow! What a good cause for tree climbing skills. Those still pics are awesome.

You mentioned steps taken to ensure owlets weren't clubbed via green rope removal, jw if that was a risk when end of red SRT rope was pulled free.

Great work, keep it up!

Ha, what a life-
"Well, my bro and I were actually born, ok hatched, near the top of a nice, tall, skinny, white pine. We were doing fine until a couple days ago when we both got blown out of the nest by storm winds. I have no idea how I survived the fall uninjured but I did. Didn't know where my bro landed but I just kinda chilled on the ground for awhile. Mom, well, she's all about tough love so she didn't seem upset, I guess she figures what doesn't kill us makes us stronger so she kept an eye on us and hooted some to console us. So anyway, some alien kinda things, I guess they're called humans, they came along and scooped me up which got me pretty scared, I was on auto pilot flapping my wings trying to run away but they got me. I'm not sure why they bothered bc they didn't kill me and I actually sensed good vibes from them. So after a spell, they put me in like a soft, portable tree cavity and it was very cool bc they found my brother and put him in there with me. Next thing I know, we are being hoisted up into a tall nearby pine by another alien and he then shooed us out of the soft cavity and into this really bizarre nest. I mean, the nest was weird though it actually felt pretty good, maybe better than our old nest. I was real happy to be up high up again, it just felt way better than hanging out on the ground. That night, mom brought us each a dead mouse which we swallowed whole. Oh, it's good to be back home!"
Click to expand...
You nailed it
 
cory said:
Just wow! What a good cause for tree climbing skills. Those still pics are awesome.

You mentioned steps taken to ensure owlets weren't clubbed via green rope removal, jw if that was a risk when end of red SRT rope was pulled free.

Great work, keep it up!
Click to expand...

Thx again Cory. The climbing rope, Yale Pink Moon 11.7mm, was clear of the nest pulled out in either direction, I think I pulled it out from the backside of the tree to guarantee no contact with the nest.

I've got a chunk of stainless bow shackle near the end of my lanyard so needed to be extra careful with that. For the nest build I wanted optimal positioning to be comfortable. Once the nest was complete I moved the SRT mode lanyard anchor point to a place where I had reasonably good stability positioning for putting the owlets back in the nest. I did not want to stand up over the nest to bring the lanyard end back safely over them. Doing so could push one or both of the owlets off the nest.
-AJ
 
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