Young Owl a Baby No More
You might remember that earlier this summer we had the opportunity to test out one of our eastern screech owl’s mothering skills. We put our female screech (who normally lives in one of our exhibits) in an enclosure with an orphaned baby screech to see if she’d foster the owlet, and foster she did: she…
Small Falcon, Big Farewell
Last Saturday, VINS Education Intern Sarah Sincerbeaux released an American kestrel back into the wild. Watch a video of this bird’s release! The small falcon came to VINS’ rehabilitation department as a fledgling — he was old enough to have left his nest, but young enough that he may have been relying on his parents…
Twins!
Well, nest-mates, anyway. These are the two young, fuzzy white faced broad-winged hawks who came into the care of the VINS wildlife services team last month. The two were rescued by a logger who, unknowingly, was also their downfall when he cut the tree in which their nest was perched. Below is the pair when…
Not So Baby Anymore
Have any parents out there woken up one morning and realized your “baby” is taller then you are? That must be how our foster owl has been feeling lately. Now that adulthood is creeping in, our fledgling eastern screech owl has grown in almost all her adult feathers and now weighs 193 grams! (That’s 0.4…
Raptors, Raptors, Everywhere!
In the past month, we have had an influx of juvenile raptors here at the VINS rehabilitation center, and I wanted to share some snapshots! The two youngsters to the left came in to VINS together after their nest was cut down by an unsuspecting logger. The kind man was very surprised by what came…
Chip Off The Old Owl
It has been 5 days since the eastern screech owlet here at VINS was introduced to our adult eastern screech foster owl and we thought it was time for a little checking in. Both of our owls are doing great! While there has not been any snuggling or cute nick-naming of one owl to the…
Where’s the Baby?
Here at the wildlife services department of VINS we have been lucky enough to play foster parents to a young eastern screech owl for the past few weeks. If you have recently been by the Rehab In Action exhibit’s one way viewing window you may have seen us dancing around in a crazy looking feathered…
That’s No Wizard
We had quite the surprise recently when one of our volunteer transporters brought in a box containing one small bird. This particular bird was found outside a home and appeared to have flown into a window. The bird showed signs of spinal and head trauma and was unable to stand, so she was taken right…
She’s Free as a Bird Now
Last Friday, Vermont got another free bird. See a video of this owl’s return to the wild. It took 46 days for this barred owl to mend in the Vermont Institute of Natural Science’s avian rehabilitation center, but it was worth the wait to see her fly away again on April 15th. After being hit…
A Fine Take-off
This barred owl, who came to VINS with head trauma after being struck by a car, made a fabulous dash out of his box upon release. The owl was treated for six weeks in VINS’ rehabilitation department, and made a full recovery. In our video of the owl’s release, the owl takes off out of…
