Monday, June 04, 2012

Barn Owl Release

A friend of mine volunteers for our local Animal Rescue. Lately she's been specializing in raptors. Last night, she released four barn owls into the wild and invited us to come along and watch.

Two owls flew away as soon as their boxes were open. A third sat in the box, not wanting to go anywhere for a while until it realized it was free. The fourth, shown below, was angry about the whole ordeal and decided to let us know.

The video quality isn't quite what I wanted. The original was quite good but very dark due to the late hour of the release. I played around with the lighting and some zooms on the face with the result that there's some blockiness in the movie. I haven't had the time to refine the thing, so you'll have to watch it as is. The video resolution goes up to 720p HD. Enjoy!

5 comments:

Tim Eisele said...

"Are you messing with me? You better not be messing with me! JUST SEE HOW HUGE I AM!!"

Mostly Nothing said...

We went to a release a few years ago put on by the Raptor Center a the U of Minnesota. it was really cool. The kids were pretty little then, so probably 8-9 years ago.

Doo Doo Econ said...

Is this commentary on individual views of dependence and freedom? Was the Owl that stuck around in captivity for the full 99 weeks? 8)

Jedi Master Ivyan said...

Don't need to worry about that one becoming dependent on humans...
:-)

Anonymous said...

My experience with bar owls in the wild is that about fifty percent of the fledglings who leave the nest plummet to their deaths. I've seen about six barn owl nests, left them along, but watched the babies from a distance, through binoculars or a long lens camera. And they were sure cute. But mom tosses them out of the nest, and they fly--or don't. And if they don't, the drop like a brick. The video was cool to watch, but kinder than mother nature.