Northern Saw-whet Owl in Nest Cavity
This owl resides at the Woodland Park Zoo. She is captive and approximately 7-9 years old I believe. I thought it was worth uploading to inaturalist, though. She's originally from Washington, though, I believe.
According to the zoo, her story is as follows (if you're interested): "Chouette arrived at the zoo as a rescue after she was struck by a vehicle while bug-hunting in the light of a street light. She suffered a concussion and an open fracture of her left wing. Her wing will never fully recover and she is now essentially flightless. The zoo gave her a home to ensure she gets the food and shelter she would struggle to get for herself in the wild."
Re-located this roosting owl with my real camera in hand.
Full resolution at http://bit.ly/YJC9oK
Not a great shot, but posting it to JerseyBirders because it came from Mike Britt's Owl Prowl. I got the only saw-whet of the entire state-wide effort. No whitewash or pellets; just looked up into a bazillion trees, & there was a ball of fluff in the bazillion-&-1st. Sound asleep; barely stirred even with 5 people traipsing around under his tree. Uniform 2nd-growth E Juniper, ~25'' hi.
Taken with an Olympus C3040Z handheld thru an 8x40 binocular lens. ("The amazing thing about a dancing bear is not how gracefully it dances, but that it dances at all." Actually, the technique often gives surprisingly good results, but not this time.)
iPhone through the binoculars. Not quite as sharp as I would have hoped, but you get the idea.
calling at about 3:00 AM
Rodney Olsen's owl banding station; one of five netted that night
date approximate - ca. winter of early 1990's
One of three Northern Saw-whet owls caught at a bird banding site in Trustom Pond NWR. This individual was determined to be a 2nd year female owl (that had been previously banded the year before). The other two were first year females.
a rescued bird at a nature center near Tupper Lake called 'The Wild Center'. Well worth stopping to see if you are in the area.
