Last week a Red-tailed Hawk was struck be a vehicle on I-84 west of Pendleton. On Thursday morning a Great Horned Owl was reported on an on-ramp east of Pendleton. Winnie picked up the owl on her way to work. At 1599 grams, the owl is a large female. She has a small amount of hemorrhage in her right eye, indicating head trauma. We could find no fractures during the initial exam. Because Great Horned Owls are a high risk species for highly pathogenic avian influenza, HPAI, the owl will remain in quarantine until we receive HPAI test results from the Veterinary Diagnostic Lab in Corvallis this week. We anticipate the result will be negative, but the owl will remain in quarantine until that is confirmed.

No more young Barn Owls were found in the hay stack that was being moved this past week. We will request permission to transfer the owlet to the Tri-Cities Center where it can be placed in a nest box and allowed to fledge from there. It will return to the box for food until it has perfected its flying and hunting skills.

Normally, I use Sandvox to create the newsletter and publish it to BMW’s website. We knew there would come a time when the program would no longer be functional. That time arrived this past week. Winnie has been creating a new website using Word Press. If all goes well, the new site will be up and running this week. Until then, this newsletter will not be viewable on the website. We will keep you posted!