by Bea Peterson
A crowd of at least 150 adults and youngsters were able to get up close and personal with three owls Wednesday evening at the HAYC3 Armory. Trained wildlife rehabilitator Trish Marki of the Wildlife Institute of Eastern New York and her assistant Dave brought three owls for everyone to see and to learn about. [private]Marki started by asking folks to be quiet during the program so as not to startle the birds and to not touch them. “They have an oil on their feathers, like ducks, that keep them dry in the rain. If we touch their feathers, we disrupt that oil,” she said. “Besides, owls don’t
like being touched.” She said there are over 217 species of owls in the world and ten different species that live in New York State. Owls have been around for six million years. Cave drawings of them have been found dating back that far.
Yes, owls can turn their heads all the way around. However, they must turn it back to where it started; it doesn’t corkscrew! Owls must move their heads that way because their eyes don’t move. They can see five times better than we can, and they see as well at night as we do on a cloudy day. Their brains are very small compared to the size of their eyes. If our eyes were the comparative size of the owl’s, they would be the size of grapefruits. Owls have excellent hearing. They can hear a mouse moving 100 yards away. As they are ground hunters, they don’t have to fly very high. “They are lazy birds,” said Marki. “They wait in a tree until they hear the pitter patter of little feet, then they silently swoop down and pick up their meal.” Marki showed the audience an owl pellet. A day or so after an owl eats it coughs up the pellet which contains the bones and other parts of the creature they ate that they couldn’t digest. Small owls eat mice, moles,
insects and small birds. Larger owls can take larger prey. Owls grab their prey with their talons, frequently killing it. They do not want the hapless critter to bite their feet.
The first owl everyone got to see was a molting eastern screech owl named Hootie. Screech owls live in tree holes made by woodpeckers, Marki said. These owls don’t like the insects that remain in the tree so they will often bring a small garter snake up into the tree to live and to eat the insects. Screech owls have a great camouflage trick. They can curl up on the ground, puff up their feathers and look like a pine cone.
The second owl shown was a barred owl named Chop-Chop. Marki said barred owls make a variety of sounds. They can sound like someone laughing or like someone being murdered! Barred owls are active late in the day and early in the morning. Many are native to New York, but some migrate to this area from Canada.
Both Hootie and Chop-Chop have permanent injuries that will not permit them to be released back into the wild.
The third owl, however, was bred in the US and purchased by Marki. He is an Eurasian eagle owl named Wyatt. Eurasian eagle owls were once endangered, but breeding programs have been successful in restoring their place in the wild. “These birds are at the top of the food chain,” said Marki. They can exert a thousand pounds of pressure in their feet. They can live to 60 years of age in captivity and 30 years in the wild. They steal other birds’ nests to raise their young. Wyatt weighs about six pounds and can pick up a creature weighing 15 pounds. The female is about a head taller than the male and can pick up 30 pounds.
Rehabilitators
Marki said the Wildlife Institute of Eastern New York receives about 6,000 calls a year to rescue wild animals, from rabbits, woodchuck and beavers to moose and deer. She said the baby season is almost over, so they won’t have many more babies coming in.
Marki advised the children to never pick up an injured wild animal. “Tell your parents or another adult about what you have seen,” she said. She advised the adults to wear gloves and to wrap a towel or a blanket around the animal. “Because if the animal bites you, the only way to check if it has rabies is to check its brain tissue.” The best thing to do when you see an injured wild animal is to call the nearest Wildlife hotline, she added.
After Marki’s fantastic presentation, the Owl mural that community artists have been working on for many weeks was unveiled. Every owl is different and each one has a name.
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