The Owl

It is with a heavy heart that I write this post. But part of the purpose of this blog is to educate and inform my readers of country life, and what happened last night is part of it. Justin was out and about, putting out feed and doing work around the property when he came upon a sad sight. An owl was caught in some barb wire fence at the back of the property. I ran down with a towel and he was using a bucket to keep the owl in (and away from talons and a beak) as he tried to free it. Unfortunately, the wing was already broken in multiple places and the owl didn't even have any fight in him. I ran to get wire cutters and the .22. Justin did call the game warden to ask if there was anything else we could do - any kind of rehabilitation place we could take it - but he said if the wing is that bad, they wouldn't be able to do anything for it. As I was running back with the items, Justin had managed to free it from the fence and was driving up in the gator. He had the owl in the bucket with the blanket over it. I had grabbed my camera as well, so I took a few pictures before we had to end its misery. I think it is either a spotted owl or a barred owl; they look very similar and I am not an aviary specialist.

Such a beautiful bird.