Tag: great horned owl

Critter rescues this fall

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, Florida animals8 Comments

My car was full in mid-September when I drove some lost critters from the Raptor Center of Tampa Bay to Penny, a rehabber, in south St. Pete. Baby squirrel season was in full swing and I had 2 boxes of lost babies as well as 2 hawks and a baby dove.

A few days later more baby squirrels made the trip to Penny. This time I had 2 baby flying squirrels in the car. They were so tiny and much smaller than regular squirrels. They can’t actually fly around like birds and bats but are able to glide from tree to tree with those tiny “wings” on their sides. They are nocturnal so they are hard to spot. I’ve heard they are in the area but I’ve never seen one in the wild until this day.

A few “regular” baby squirrels also made the trip.

Penny rehabs all kinds of critters and lives in south St. Pete. Her neighborhood had a few free roaming peacocks and this one was able to walk in front of my car so I stopped and snapped the above as she crossed the street. She’s pretty with a mix of white and blue.

At the beginning of October a young red shoulder hawk had just come back from a visit to the vet for an injured eye and was making the trip back to the Raptor Center to finish his rehabilitation.

Look at that face! This great horned owl had been rescued and was well enough to be released so I was driving him to the Raptor Center from a Barbara, the rehabber near my home. He will go into the big flight cage at the center to build back up his strength.

A turkey vulture and another great horned owl also made the trip.

A few weeks later I stopped at an emergency vet to pick up a baby squirrel that had been brought in that was found in someone’s yard. Then I drove it to the Raptor Center.

He joined another big box of lost squirrels and I drove them all to Penny.

An injured crow also made the trip.

In early December I picked up a caracara from the Raptor Center that had an injured wing and leg. We don’t see caracaras near my home and this one was brought in from central Florida. I took him to Barbara, the rehabber, who was taking him to the vet the next morning to have him looked and at possibly reset the wing and leg. This was the 2nd caracara I had as a passenger in the year and half of driving injured critters. He looks like a prettier vulture and acts like a vulture (mostly eating roadkill) but he’s actually a type of falcon.

Summer rescue transports

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

Brothers from a different mother (and father). These three babies (bunny, squirrel and possum) all made the trip together to Penny the rehabber in south St. Pete. They were so cute all cuddled up together.

A sick crow also made the trip in late July.

At the end of July I headed out to the Raptor Center of Tampa Bay to pick up a carful of critters. This tiny baby squirrel was so cute with his feet sticking out.

A baby bird that had fallen out of the nest and couldn’t be renested also made the trip.

Two kestrels also made the trip and went to Barb, the rehabber at Moccasin Lake Park. They were going to be released.

Another carload of critters in early August. I first stopped at a rehabber nearby to pick a screech owl that was headed to the Raptor Center to be rehabilitated.

At the Raptor Center I picked up my first ever black skimmer. This juvenile had an injured wing that was wrapped up.

An osprey was making the trip to Penny, who is an osprey expert.

The tiniest bunny I think I’ve had it my car. Was it praying in it’s sleep?

It was mid-August and so many baby squirrels were being found. People find them in their yard when they either fall from the nest or the tree was cut down and now the nest is on the ground. The Raptor Center tries to work with people to help reunite the babies with their Mom but it doesn’t always work. All of these were going to Penny, also a squirrel expert.

A week later I had 3 great horned owls (only pictures of 2) and a barred owl in my car. They had all been to a vet nearby that works with wild birds and all were okay and heading back to the Raptor Center to eventually be released. I think they must have gotten rid of their breakfast all at the same time because they were pretty stinky in the car.

I picked up the screech owl at the Raptor Center and took it back to Barb. It was going to the vet the next morning for an injured eye.

A new owl family

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

After the loss of both great horned owl parents (and babies) in 2022 in a nearby park from rat poison I was hesitant to stop by when I heard a new couple had moved into the nest tree. New owls met and paired up last year and hung around the nest for several months but did not have babies. I never did make it over there because I was still heart broken after the loss of the family the year before. The locals named them Odie and Dory (named after Odet Philippe and his wife Dorothy who were the first settlers in Safety Harbor and brought grapefruit to the area). This year I heard they were back and on a nest so I stopped by in late January to see Dory up on the nest.

Odie was nearby napping in the moss.

In early February I made another stop and Dory was still on the nest but there was a rumor that someone had seen a tiny baby on the nest. She was acting like something was going on but we didn’t see any feeding yet.  Maybe the baby was still too small to see and the nest was much higher up and harder to see.

Two weeks later we could see the baby. This was right before sunset and we waited until dark hoping to catch a feeding but Dad didn’t come in with food until it was too dark to shoot anything.

A week later I took my sister over to see the owls while she was visiting. Odie was moving around and being cute. It looked like he was eating a bug on the branch.

The baby was sitting up on a branch a few feet away from Mom where it was very visible.  It mostly slept while we were there and we didn’t stay long. This was the last I saw of it. I heard a few days later the baby was seen injured and then disappeared. People think another raptor must have gotten the baby. The non-expert owl watchers were thinking since Dory was a new Mom she wasn’t sure how to take care of it. Either way it was sad again. We’ll have to wait until next winter to see if they nest again.

My first eagle passenger

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

An early morning transport had me driving an injured red shoulder hawk and a black vulture from the Raptor Center in Brandon to Penny, the rehabber, in south St. Pete. I didn’t get a picture of the vulture. He was in a box and was jumping around a lot so didn’t want to open the box. I think he was being released soon.

A few days later I got an emergency call to see if I could pick up an injured eagle that was being rescued.  It was only 15 minutes from my house so I jumped in the car and met George from Birds In Helping Hands who had just grabbed the eagle. The eagle had been on the ground in someone’s backyard and they called it in.

George put the eagle in a crate and put it in the back of my car. My first eagle passenger put up a little fight at first so I thought he might be okay. The entire drive to the Raptor Center I was hoping it wasn’t rat poison which would have been bad. When I got to the Center and Nancy went to take him out of my car we realized he did not survive the trip. I was crushed, fighting back tears. His crop was torn wide open so he hadn’t eaten in a long time. Nancy thinks he must have eaten a fish with a big fishing hook in it and it tore through.

The rescues and transports continue. A huge white pelican was rescued in someone’s yard by Carol (on the right) and brought to the nearby Raptor Center. I met her there and then transported it to the Seaside Seabird Sanctuary. Two hawks (in the boxes) made the trip as well and went to Penny on the way home.

There’s a constant stream of screech owls getting rescued. This was found on the ground not too far from my home and I got it from Barbara, the rescuer, and drove it out to the center.

February 1st brought another trip to a rehabber with a red shoulder hawk and a crow. Most of the birds are quiet in the car but that crow was cawwing all the way there.

Baby squirrel season had already started here. There were 3 in the box. The one mostly covered under the towel had no fur yet. There were 2 tiny bats that were found on the ground as well. Bats can carry rabies but it’s very rare for a person to get a rabies from a bat. I didn’t open the box. Penny opened it when I got to her home. She’s been vaccinated for rabies and rehabilitates bats.

A few days later I transported a great horned owl with a bang on his head and an injured beak and a turkey vulture that was sick.

Two days later another box of baby squirrels went to Penny.  This box also had a tiny baby bunny in it (on the orange).

A wood stork with a broken wing also made the trip. He was heading to Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park to live once he healed.

In the middle of February a sick sanderling was found in central Florida. Someone brought him into the Raptor Center and I drove him from there to the Seaside Seabird Sanctuary out on the beach. They are experts with rehabbing shorebirds so he was in good hands.

The sick/injured wildlife never ends here so I have more to share but I’ll save that for another post.

Tiny baby owl and sunset

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

It was the middle of January and it was blasting windy and cold but I still made it down to Fort Desoto to see the new baby great horned owls. They had nested right on the top of a dead palm tree. This was a late day shoot so you weren’t shooting right into the sun so I was there late in the afternoon. Not long after I arrived Mom was sitting on the nest with feathers sticking to her beak. What was she eating?

The little baby had been hiding under Mom’s wing but it made a brief appearance and Mom gave it a few bites. I hated that big branch that was in Mom’s face but if I moved over to the right then the baby was hidden by Mom’s wing. There was another baby hiding under the back of Mom but since it was so cold and windy it stayed there.

Mom continued to eat and we realized it was a laughing gull. Some photographers that had been there earlier said Dad flew in with a laughing gull and left it.

What a look!

There’s an osprey nest right by the owl’s nest. Dad flew right over my head with a fish and landed on the nest platform. He dropped the fish and took off. Mom must be sitting on eggs. There are currently 34 osprey nests in the park so it’s going to be a busy baby osprey season.

The nest was near the boat ramp parking lot so I walked over to the water. There wasn’t a single boat out this late afternoon. This is what I love about the cold weather here, the quiet stillness at the parks.

After the Mom owl finished eating I headed over for a quick walk on the north beach. The tide was super low and the sand went on for miles. I didn’t stay long since it was hard standing up straight in the wind.

an image of a red sports car with a lady caricature going at Vroom Vroom high speed, Senior Salon Pit Stop Vroom Vroom Linkup

Ending the year and starting another with injured birds

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

Look at that beautiful face! This poor barred owl had been shot but was making a quick recovery. In late October I picked him up at the Raptor Center of Tampa Bay in Brandon and drove him down to a rehabber in St. Pete. Soon he will be ready to fly free.

A vulture also made the trip. Penny was pulling him out of the back of my car and checking him over. He was found sick and should be released soon.

So many vultures were either sick or getting hit by cars. They feed in the roads eating roadkill so they are sometimes risking their lives for a meal. No one slows down anymore. I made several trips to pick up injured turkey vultures to take to rehabbers in early November.

The above river cooter had been hit by a car Thanksgiving week. A good samaritan picked her up and brought her to the Raptor Center. Overnight she laid an egg. The next morning I drove the cooter and her egg to the Swamp Girl Adventures near Orlando.

This poor red shoulder hawk had an injured eye. Someone found him in their yard and brought him into an emergency vet who called the Raptor Center. I picked him up right away and drove him to Penny in south St. Pete.

The week of Christmas this common loon was found on the ground in the middle of Florida, no where near water. Loons winter here in Florida but in water. I see them often in the gulf or bay on my walks. Loons don’t have the ability to take off from land so if they are on land they are stranded for some reason. He might have gotten blown off course by a bad storm that had recently hit Florida.  I drove him from the Raptor Center to Seaside Seabird Sanctuary on Indian Shore beach. They are loon experts and will hopefully have him swimming in the gulf in no time.

I had some time before heading home so I did a quick walk around the seabird sanctuary and followed the above pelican out to the beach. The sanctuary gets a lot of wild birds hanging around looking for a free handout. It was a beautiful but cold windy morning so I got a very rare shot of an empty stretch of beach.

I made a quick trip back to Penny, the rehabber, on Christmas eve with another injured vulture.

The day after New Year I drove a great horned owl that was about to be released down to Penny’s as well as a tiny bat that was found on the ground in someone’s yard. He was named Pop Tart because he was brought in to the Raptor Center in a Pop Tart box. Bats can’t take off from the ground. They need to drop down a few feet to get lift before taking off so if a bat is on the ground it’s probably sick. They eat their weight in mosquitos every night so they are very beneficial to have around. Many people put up bat boxes in their neighborhoods to keep the insect population down. We have a box nearby and I love going out to get the mail right before dark and seeing they flying around.

Critter transports in mid-September

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, Florida animals3 Comments

More rescue transports for the Raptor Center of Tampa Bay. These are from the middle of September into October. I got a text in the middle of September that a baby squirrel needed a ride from an emergency vet to a rehabber. Emergency vets will take in wildlife but they usually don’t treat them. They call rehabbers to come and get them. This teeny tiny baby needed to get warmed up and fed so I made the trip and brought it to the Raptor Center. It’s better if the parent raises the babies but someone had found it in their yard and the Mom never came back.

A few days later I headed over to the Raptor Center to take a box full of squirrels and an injured crow to Penny, the rehabber in St. Pete.

On the way from Brandon to St. Pete I stopped at an emergency vet in South Tampa. Someone had found a Cooper’s hawk laying down in their driveway. I was crushed when I picked up this beautiful hawk and saw how sick he was. He had either been hit by a car or had eaten a poisoned rat. Either way he had a tough road ahead.  If it was a poisoned rat he will probably not make it.

A week later I made another trip from the Raptor Center to Penny, the rehabber. This time it was a young squirrel and the cutest baby bunny.

A few days later I made another trip with the same type passengers. This baby bunny was even tinier.

Early October brought my first gopher tortoise passenger and there were 3 of them. Two had been hit by a car and one had been found lost on a construction site. They made the trip from Raptor Center to Swamp Girl Adventures in Kissimmee, near Disney World. Kim at Swamp Girl specializes in rehabbing all types of turtles/torts and other reptiles. Gopher tortoises have Florida state-designated threatened protection due mostly to loss of habitat from over population and building. They are listed as a rare species in this area and there are several programs trying to re-introduce them into the wild. These guys were very special passengers.

The next week was a quick trip. A great horned owl with an injured eye had been picked up by a rescuer near my home and I picked it up from her and drove it out to Raptor Center in Brandon.

In mid-October I had a car full of critters that I had picked up at the Raptor Center and drove down to Penny in St. Pete to finish rehabbing and eventually release. An osprey with an injured wing, the same owl with the injured eye I had picked up days before, an injured screech owl and a tortoise. The tortoise was not a gopher but someone’s pet that had an injured shell. A dog had bitten through the young shell and the tortoise was surrendered to a vet. I’m not sure what Penny will do with it once she fixes the shell. Maybe it will get sent to a zoo or sanctuary.

It just keeps getting worse.

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography6 Comments

More from the great horned owl’s nest. These were all taken in late February, before we lost one of the babies to rat poison.

These were the only pictures I got of all 3 of the babies together. They were usually all over the place. The first one was taken early one morning, with the youngest trying to hide behind the moss.

One of my last visits at the end of February, they were flying to the nearby trees and really working those muscles.At the end of the day it was dark and cloudy and about to rain and they were very active but it was hard to get good shots in the bad light.

Here is where the problem is. They eat a lot of rats. Most restaurants, apartment buildlings and stores use those black rat poison boxes and don’t realize the impact it has on the other wildlife. If a rat eats the poison and doesn’t die right away, the owl is going to get it and eat it and die as well. There is a campaign to educate the people in the area about the side effects of using the poison. You don’t need it when you have owls, eagles and hawks living in the area. Plus there other non-poisonous traps to use. We also lost the Mom as well. She was found a few days after the baby. Both had necropsys done and they came back positive for rat poison.

I made a quick stop a few days later and Dad was raising the 2 remaining babies. I found the Dad and the babies were both high up in the next tree. I’ve heard they were doing well and flying all over the park since then. Edit-One of the remaining 2 babies was found dead at the park this week from rat poison and the Dad was found yesterday. So now there is only 1 remaining owl out of a family of 5.

Guess what’s for breakfast

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

Mom was digging around in the nest early one morning in February and pulled up a rat. I’m going to be repetitive about using rat poison. Owls love rats. When people use rat poison the rats don’t die right away. They wander off and the owls pick them up and eat them. Owls can easily die from a rat that has eaten rat poison.  You don’t need to use it. The owls (eagles and hawks as well) will take care of the rats.

I spent a good part of the morning waiting for the baby owls to wake up and then  watching Mom taking turns feeding the babies.  Doesn’t that look yummy!?!  It was an overcast day, I was using my long lens and these are extremely cropped up so they aren’t quite as clear as I would have liked. But that’s okay. I’d rather be standing half way across the beach than too close. I didn’t make it back out later to see these little ones completely grown. On a sad circle of life note, I heard that one went missing and a team of people spent all morning looking for it. They think it may have fallen during the night. The area has a lot of coyotes that we don’t see during the day so one of them or an eagle could have gotten it.

Bok Tower Gardens

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

Even though chipping sparrows are not rare, I don’t see them often.

I found a female ruby throated hummingbird feeding in the english garden at Bok Tower Gardens in late February. It almost looks like she was molting around her face.

I was standing on the path for a while under a pine tree waiting for the hummingbird to come back to the flowers and someone walked by and said “Look at the owl over your head”. I didn’t even notice him when I walked up earlier. I’m glad he didn’t poop on me!

Butterflies and flowers in the garden near the bell tower.

The door to the courtyard at the historic house on the grounds. The Pinewood Estate is closed for now but you can still walk around the grounds.

I found the Fairy Garden on this visit. I usually don’t venture into the children’s garden there but it was a quiet morning so I wandered in to see if there were any good birds back there. I loved the big oversize nest and the little houses made from nature. It’s so creative.

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