Wild World

(Hogan the owl and one of her foster babies)

So I just got back from liberty wildlife. One of my favorite places in the world. I figure that makes it a good day to blog about it (and tell that baby owl story)

Liberty is a wildlife sanctuary in Scottsdale, Arizona. They rescue injured animals found in the city, rehabilitate them, and re-release them into the wild. They also focus on educating the public on how to interact with nature without harming it and without it harming us, especially when it comes to wild animals. In the cases of animals they rescue, sometimes they can't be re-released because of permanent injuries that won't heal, or because they are improperly imprinted (look that up, it's interesting), so Liberty gives them a lifetime home. They do tours with some of those animals, taking them around to teach people about their species. Liberty rescues all types of animals, but mostly birds. So on Fridays I go there and do daily care: feeding birds, cleaning cages, filling out feeding logs and monitoring behavior for anything odd. Kinda dirty work, but I love it.

This is Hogan....

She's a great horned owl, and a foster mommy. She came in with a wing injury, but it never healed so she is unreleasable. She wouldn't survive in the wild. Instead, she lives at Liberty. She's very nurturing. When we get great horned owl babies in that need a mommy to teach them how to be an owl, we put them in with Hogan and she takes to them like they were her very own. And she cares for A LOT of babies! She has 8 right now, but in the past she's cared for way more than that. And she's totally crazy protective of all of them. I think it's neat.

These are a few of her babies....

(Not a super great picture. It was taken through the slats in the cage. I don't go in Hogan's cage. Don't mess with momma, for sure! You can only see 3 of the 8 in this picture because of the angle, but they're all in there)

This is Sequoia....

She's a Harris hawk foster mommy. (Also crazy protective. Another picture taken from the slats in her cage. Look at those crazy eyes! Who wants to mess with that! ... she is beautiful though)

Sequoia doesn't take to babies that aren't her own quite as well as Hogan. Right now, she doesn't even have a baby with her, she has an egg... and unfertilized egg... She layed it herself, because it's springtime and that's her nature, but there's no male to fertilize it. Even so, she doesn't know that. She's been sitting on it like it's going to hatch someday. So what happens with Sequoia is, when an injured harris hawk baby comes in, liberty volunteers will switch the egg for the baby. Sequoia thinks her egg hatched, baby doesn't know the difference, and he has a new momma to teach him how to be a harris hawk... So crazy! But what a good thing she's doing for those babies, even if she thinks they are hers. She can't live in the wild, but she is still helping her species. So neat.

Another interesting Liberty story... This is a pelican....

The poor guy blew in from California. Literally! He got caught in a bad wind storm, blown east, ended up totally disoriented at the first lake he found. Tempe town lake... a tiny man made lake in the middle of the city! Not a good home for a pelican... so he came to Liberty, but he has a severe wing injury. He'll never fly again. We're taking care of him until he recovers a little. He has a home waiting for him at SeaWorld in San Diego, as soon as he's ready to be shipped there. Poor sweetheart is so out of his element :(

Anyway, this is my life on Fridays. I love all these guys so much.

Some thinks to check out

http://www.libertywildlife.org/

http://www.libertywildlife.blogspot.com/