Finally got to make a return visit to the first owl rehab I visited. The Raptor Trust is a nice medical and rehab facility in northern NJ.
It’s a great facility to look around, but picture taking is absolutely terrible. They have very fine netting on all the enclosures. Most of my pics look like this, no matter how hard I tried.
I’ll share a few I got where you can actually see the birds. The post picture is of the most beautiful Barred Owl they had, Sonny.
You have no idea how sad I was that I couldn’t photograph Sonny! He spent almost the whole time sitting literally inches from me. He looked so beautiful in person, and seemed so gentle! Every now and then, he would ever so softly hoot at me. 🥰
A lady at the facility talked to me for a while as she worked on his crate training. She got him to follow food until he went in an animal crate. Even with food, owls still don’t like to cooperate. If they’re full enough, they won’t budge. After he’d finally hop inside, she’d carefully shut the door and tilt the box a little this way and that to get him used to being transported for his checkups.
She said owls generally don’t mind the crates since it’s like a tree hollow they would normally live in.
I believe they had 4 other Barred Owls.
This was literally the only spot in the park without netting! This one was tied for hottest owl along with the GHO. Those 2 were panting as much as I was!
One of 2 Peregrine falcons. Huge fan of their striped pajama pants!
They also had some very huge Red Tailed Hawks, a Rough Legged Hawk, and one other that I can’t remember.
This GHO had some huge plumicorns!
This owl was very much indicating how it did not like this heat! It was panting hard and did not look to be enjoying itself. This was the first animal I saw when I got there and the last when I left, and it had this intense, wide eyed look the entire time.
Again, very sad to not be able to get a good pic of this one. This is a leukistic Robin! Super excited to see this.
I saw people walking by and pointed it out to them. Everyone thought the pen was empty as it was so hard to see it as it was so bright out it was hard to notice it. They acted like I was trying to prank them into looking for an animal in an empty pen, but then they found it and were excited too.
Leucistic birds are very interesting. There was a leucistic goldfinch on my feeder a few years ago. They are just kind of washed out looking.
I’ve read the leucism develops when the nerves and sense organ are developing as well, so they typically have bad eyesight and other nerve problems, so they typically do not fare well.
You’re here pretty often, so you probably saw the big post about the leucistic GHO I shared a while back, but if not, I can find you a link.
My merch haul!
Picked up the physical version of the What an Owl Knows book. I’ve been reading a PDF of it, but there are so many things I’ve bookmarked in it, I absolutely had to buy this legitimately to support the author. I still haven’t finished it, but there is so much great stuff on every single page. This is where I’ve found out a ton of facts and the scientific studies I’ve shared with you here. If you want a physical copy of what I share with you here, just buy this book. It’s awesome.
Also picked up a deck of owl playing cards to take on trips, and the girlfriend opted for this Saw Whet keychain. She liked how pudgey it is.
These are all the keychains and pins.
I flipped through this book quickly. It’s about much more than Screech Owls. It’s a little less advanced looking than What an Owl Knows, but it has lots of color pictures. Added it to my wishlist.
Cute collection of planters.
Some nice wooden ornaments.
Gift shop is also online if any of this strikes your fancy.
Pair of Bald Eagles. These guys always smell so bad, no matter where I see them!
They also had a Golden Eagle, but no way to get a pic. It was hopping around the trees in its enclosure. It was about the only active animal I saw, as it was over 90 degrees out. That 33C, which does not sound near large enough a number to represent how hot it was!
Only one vulture.
The lady training Sonny said besides him, the vulture was her favorite animal in the park. She said she likes the ones with the best attitudes.
Every faculty I go to, the ladies always seem to love the vultures. Vultures do always seem very chill, so maybe that is why so many staff seem to love them.
Beautiful belly patterns on this Screech! This is the only Screech I saw, though I briefly saw one head poke out of a nest box and heard a third chittering inside another house.
I really wanted to get a pic of this kestrel, but this was the best of over a dozen tries. Again, literally inches away, but the netting is too tight for me to focus through.
There was a Merlin next to this little fellow as well.
So many cool birds! Sonny is very pretty. He looks so soft!
Can confirm about Red-tailed Hawks being massive. We get one in the yard occasionally, usually eating a squirrel. Which is cool and gross at the same time.
Sonny was so beautiful and sweet. He was even good for the trainer considering how gross it was outside. It really made me think about what the west coast is going to do with them and that made me sad. So many like him will be lost due to no fault of their own.
I had a juvenile RTH that tried raiding the birds at my feeder. I saw him succeed once. He corned some finch in a shrub and the finch bolted, but did not do it fast enough. It tried to go after the bluejays once, but they were not going to take that kind of behavior from him and they drove him off.
