Hey Fairbanks!

Come visit us at the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitor Center on Saturday, April 5th from 1-4.

Busy Bird TLC Weekend so far

Britt and I started with a eagle release at the Eagle River Nature Center. Marge Brehm got to release BE 11-08 and it was a gorgeous release.

See more photos at  Britt's site.

Ghost and I did a last minute request at Alaska Wild Berry. It was a lot of fun. Premier Alaska Tours brought several buses by.

Bev and Flame at Spenard Farmer's Market.

Kristen and Sparky at the Spenard Farmer's Market.

Owl-O-Ween 2010

The bee's, monsters, goblins and super heroes were out last night to visit with the crows, ravens and owls of Bird TLC's Education Program. Owl-o-ween was at the Alaska Heritage Museum and we had a packed house.

All of the presenters were dressed in their best Owl-O-Ween costumes and so were the visitors.

I have no idea how many visitors we had except to say there were a lot of all age, size and species.

 

Thanks to all hoo attended!
For more photos, click here.

Photos by Britt Coon / Bird TLC

Owl About a Latte a big success

With the help of a lot of friends, Owl About a Latte was a fun success.

We had a Great horned Owl, Boreal Owl, Short Eared Owl and a Snowy Owl for all to visit with.

 

In between presentations, Chelsea of Terra Bella's Bakery & Cafe' Educated us all on bird friendly organic coffee. We all got to try some out too, that's my favorite part.

Thanks to all who came and thanks to all that helped put it all together.

It's getting close to Holloween, we got lots of owls

This guy came in tonight from Nikiski. Dr Doty at PET ER helped get it settled down for the night. Broken left humerus.

This is what the guy on top looks like when he gets well. This guy is working on his flight strength.

Here's Snappy, a short eared owl from Bethel. He's getting his hunting skills back.

This great horned owl came in from Soldotna. It's recovering from a broken wing.

Call me Snappy

We don't often get the whole story of what happened to a bird that makes it come to Bird TLC. I love it when we hear from people who bring us up to date or as Paul Harvey would have said "and here's the rest of the story".

Hello,

Good to see an update of the Bethel Short-Eared Owl on your blog, “Of Grebes & Owls”. But sorry to see that the main website (www.birdtlc.net) and none of the links (maybe except your blog) hasn’t been updated since last summer.

My family brought in the owl to ADF&G. We were berry-picking between Bethel and Eek when a juvenile owl took off from next to us. Being young, it could only fly a short distance. One of our dogs gave chase, but before I could stop it, the dog was upon the young owl, grabbing its body and shook it. The dog left when I shouted at it to get away, but the owl was shaken up and hurt (broken leg and all) and at first I believed it wasn’t going to survive.

We took the owl back to camp and bound it tightly in a towel (like a body splint) and left it in our boat cabin. By the next morning, it had escaped its body splint and perched on the dash okay. We had a bunch of kids (7 kids, age 2-14, from 2 families) and they took a liking to it. When we first treated it, it snapped its bill and hissed. So the kids started calling it “Snappy.”

We brought it back to Bethel and then to ADF&G. When we arrived in Bethel, we fed it strips of meat. When ADF&G said they’d send it to Bird TLC, we checked your website every day for news of the owl.

I’d like to help out with its rehabilitation if I could. Thanks for responding.

Allen Joseph
Bethel, AK

How interesting of a story is that. Thanks Allen for telling us this story and taking care of Snappy until he got to Bird TLC.

I guess I'll get to updating the website now. (BLUSH)

Of grebes and owls

This young grebe spent just a short time with us. It was returned to the lake it was found at and released. It spent a couple days getting fed and regaining its waterproofing.

This short eared owl sent in from Bethel by ADF&G will be staying a while. It has a broken leg just above what would be its knee.

Another bizy day

A red philarope flew into a electric line and damaged its left wing. It had to be amputated so obviously it's not releasable. Looks like it might get a new home on Monterrey.

Kendra is a visiting intern from Washington State University. She's been a big help and I know she's having fun. Here she checks out a northern hawk owl.

Our latest bald came with a broken right wrist that wasn't repairable. Unfortunately it had to be amputated at the wrist. After recovery, we'll find a permanent home for him. Here it's still feeling woozy from the surgery.

Taz cracked his beak so he need plastic surgery. Cindy applied some plastic goo for a temp fix until his beak grows out.

Busy Wednesday

For starters, we have a Great Gray Owl that came to us from Tok. It was hit by a car and brought in by a good citizen. We were determining if it was flighted or still needed some more r&r. The flight test didn't work out at TLC, so later on, Britt and I took the GGO out to the flight center. We brought her back. She needs some more r&r.

I couldn't go to the Alaska State Fair today. My real job was getting in the way. Cindy is checked off on Ghost (she was my mentor). So they got to go to the fair. In this picture they are getting familiarized with one another again. She does his exams and beak trimming, but doesn't get to work with him much. She reported back that things went real well.

We also got a immature bald in almost a month ago. He had some super lice. They had him so down that he wasn't expected to live. His name is Easy Rider, because a guy wrapped him up in his coat and brought him to TLC on his motorcycle. The lice lost! We took him to the flight center also. He flew right to perch and then chowed down on some salmon we had put out for him.

Last thing tonight, Britt exercised the sand hill crane or was that the other way around? It's getting big. We're discussing it's release options now.

New visitors this week

The Screech Owl came to us from Whittier. It was found on a barge there that started its journey in Seattle. How much of the cruise he took we're not sure. He was very skinny and not too alert when he arrived at TLC.

Screech Owls aren't common in the Anchorage area. You can find them in the Seward area and maybe even Whittier now.

Our new Raven came from Wasilla. He was found on the ground. He was extremely skinny and infested with feather lice. We just about have the lice issue licked and he's enjoying his meals at TLC.

He has some old injuries to his wing, but nothing that keep him from being released in time. Like most Ravens, he's got a birdality (personality) for sure.