A teenage owl found stuck in a concrete mixer in southwestern Utah is finally feeling better, flying free and perhaps a little wiser from the ordeal.
Great horned owl Somehow it made its way to the mixer mounted on the truck In late October, it was discovered by workers pouring concrete at a resort construction site. Fortunately for him, a series of people spoke about his ordeal.
The workers sprayed the bird with water before wrapping it in a towel. It took days for the staff to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary In a knap to pick up concrete from the bird’s face, chest and right wing, using tweezers to carefully break up the dried debris and cleaning the feathers with a toothbrush and dish soap.
The owl began her long recovery in the organization’s aviary, and staff were eagerly waiting for her to grow new feathers. But the bird did not melt as expected. In early May, he underwent a procedure called collimation, which uses an adhesive to graft donated feathers onto existing poles.
“The first few feathers were very nerve-wracking, but as we got into the gully, the collision became more comfortable, and things went smoothly,” said Bart Rychwalski, one of the preserve’s supervisors.
Great horned owls usually have a soft coat that allows them to fly quietly while hunting. But the concrete damaged the rescued owl’s feathers and caused it to make a humming sound in flight.
To prepare for a collision procedure, refuge staff check owl feather patterns every few weeks and trim away damaged plumes beforehand. The owl was sedated and donated feathers from a similarly sized owl that had died were placed nearby to replicate each wing. The workers then cut the feathers to the required length, arrange them, and attach them to the bird.
By the end of the 90-minute procedure, the owl had 10 new primary feathers and a secondary feather on its right wing. But then came the real test: Can he fly silently?
The bird was placed in a large cage to recover from the anesthesia and quickly flew after waking up. Rychwalski used a decibel meter to measure the sound of the owl’s wingbeats and determined that its flight was quiet enough to release it safely. The owl soared for a moment as the roof of the cage was retracted, gained speed, and then flew off into the wild.
“It feels so good. I think my heart is finally starting to beat again. The nervousness is starting to overpower the excitement, but once I saw it fly out of that hole in the ceiling, it was just a sight to behold,” said Rychwalski, who has been taking care of the owl since he picked it up at the construction site.
Carla Bloom, CEO of the Minnesota-based company Owl International CentreHe said that capture has been practiced by falconers “for ages” and is a very effective treatment.
“I’ve never heard that it doesn’t last, because you’re using some pretty good stuff when you’re striking,” said Bloom, who has studied great horned owls for nearly three decades.
She added that it would be nice to drop some of the grafted feathers. The bulk of them just need to stay in place until the owl can grow a new one in the coming summer months.
“And now it’s just a matter of knowing, ‘I’m back in the big world again, hunting,'” she said. “Find an area…you know, find someone of the opposite sex and settle down and have kids.”