Hoo ... Hoo ... Hoo ... Hoo!
It's OLIVE!!
Yes, with almost 100% certainty ... I found Olive the Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) today. Many of you remember and know our 'Olive' and her story! However, for those of you who don't, we rescued her from a barbed wire fence last July (see Owl Rescue July19, 2011) and we were able to release her back into her home 'prairie wilds' on September 21, 2011 (see Olive is Home, September 2011).
We've spotted her on and off since that time but I haven't seen her for awhile. However, I found her today and soon she will be celebrating her first birthday! Olive had muscle damage to her left wing which doesn't allow her to fully tuck her wing back in when she is perched. It doesn't impede her flight nor her ability to hunt but it does allow us to pick her out from the other Great Horned Owls ... which is kinda cool! So with that being said, we are happy you survived your first winter Olive and wish you a very Happy First Birthday! May you hunt our gophers and mice for many, many years!! Cheers!
Such a cool story...I'm a Olive fan for sure! and how did you arrive on the name Olive?
ReplyDeleteIt's been a pretty cool experience seeing this owl from the time she was just 'little' and learning to fly ... sadly having to rescue her, taking her to the wildlife centre, getting to pick her back up a couple of months later to release her and see her doing so well! Owls are so amazing!!! The name Olive came about via our boys! On route to the wildlife centre, the boys decided 'our owl' needed a name. They wanted a name that started with an O ... to go with owl. If it was a boy they wanted to name it Otis but after learning our owl was a female, they came up with 'Olive!' ... Hence, Olive the Great Horned Owl she became! :)
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