March 31 was the official start of the 2025 Baby Season with the admission of two nestling Great Horned Owls, GHOW 25-0045 and GHOW 25-046, who fell from a nest on a farm northeast of Pendleton. The nest was too high to safely access. The owlets will be raised using a method called hacking which simulates the care provided by the parents. As is typical of young raptors, the nestlings are different sizes.
Great Horned Owls usually lay 3 or 4 eggs with 2 or 3 days between each egg. They start incubating the eggs as soon as the first one is laid, so it is the first egg to hatch. Owlet 25-045 (aka Blank) weighed 309 grams on admission. Owlet 25-046 (aka Green) weighed 365 grams.
Six days later on 4/6/25 Blank weighed 570 g and Green weighed 598 g. Both have hearty appetites and are eating whole mice on their own!
Radiographs of young birds or mammals can be challenging to evaluate because the bones have not fully developed, especially at the joints. Below are the initial x-rays of Blank and Green respectively. Both birds appear to be uninjured. We will take followup x-rays before they go to the hack site, just to make sure we don’t miss an injury.
Tricia and intern Clare traveled east to Elgin and Lostine and released American Kestrel 25-017 and Western Screech Owl 25-029.
The kestrel had been found with its left wing caught in a fence, bruised but not broken!
The owl had a fractured right ulna. Both birds seemed happy to be back home!
