In a previous post, I discussed an Eagle that a local sanctuary took care of. This week, I want to show the friendliest little owl, from the same sanctuary. The same as with that post, these sanctuaries give us the opportunity to see birds of prey from up close, without the worry that they will attack us. Even though this is in itself a terribly sad situation, without these sanctuaries things would have looked even bleaker.
A sad reality that not a lot of people know about is that these birds of prey that have become used to people will never be allowed to be released into the wild. The fact is that because they are used to people, they will go up to people for food. Think yourself into this situation. Coming home after a long day of work, you find yourself confronted by a massive bird of prey, who is friendly but you do not know it, sitting on your front porch waiting for you to feed it. You will panic, the bird will then also panic, and then someone will get hurt.
So, at these sanctuaries, it is always nice to see the friendly demeanour of these birds of prey, but this is a very sad thing. They will never be released into the wild...
This little owl was raised by a family that found a batch of owl babies on their property. Rather than call the people who could properly look after them, the family decided to raise them. Because they could not keep all the owls, they sent them to the sanctuary. These owls were then so used to people, that they could not have been released after rehab. If the family only called the sanctuary before they tried to help the owls...
But this is a common thing, as small bird fall out of their nests, and people who want to look after them do not know better...
As you can see with the photograph above, the little owl is so used to humans that a local visitor could pet it without any issues. This is a big problem in the wild with most people not expecting this level of friendliness from a wild bird, and also there being people out there who would do harm to such friendly animals...
It is sad that we are living in times where we see on a daily basis the destruction of habits. These animals will not survive it we do not give them the space to make their homes, and allow enough space for them to hunt. This includes leaving space for animals such as mice to proliferate.
I am always reminded by the statement made by someone that if we get rid of all of the so-called "pests" like crickets, cockroaches, and mice, small animals will also disappear, which will also make birds of prey disappear...
When I visit my fiance, who lives in a bigger city, I am also struck by the lack of birds of prey in the area. There are countless birds, but I never see birds of prey, or crows...
This is really sad and I think a symptom if what is to come for other places if they allow people to get rid of everything, from crickets to mice.
Let us hope that people will wake up to this reality...
I know I want to live in a world where there is birds of prey. Every day when I wake up in my town, I hear the calls of both birds of prey and crows. There are constant battles between these birds of prey and the crows. Every night, I hear the calls of various owls in the area. But in the bigger towns, these calls are markedly absent. And it is sad.
In the end, we can only hope, pray, and keep faith that humanity will wake up. Because without that hope, that small fire burning, we have nothing left...
For now, happy photographing, and keep well.
All of the musings and writing are my own. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300 and Tamron 300mm zoom lens.