SEQUIM — “Baby season” has arrived at the Northwest Raptor & Wildlife Center.
Five freshly hatched barn owl chicks — all so young they have yet to open their eyes — arrived at the center Tuesday and are being kept in an incubator and fed with tweezers.
“Baby season” generally lasts from early spring to late summer, the time that most native species of wildlife raise their young, said Matthew Randazzo, the center’s public relations director, in a statement.
The five barn owl chicks, all only a few days old at most, were disturbed by human activity at a barn used by the Olympic Game Farm in Sequim sometime Monday, said Jaye Moore, director of the nonprofit center that rescues and rehabilitates wildlife.
“People at the Game Farm were convinced that the human activity at the barn would disturb the chicks and cause their parents to abandon them, so they brought the chicks into the center,” Moore said.
“They came in very cold but apparently well-fed.”
Center personnel hope soon to use an adult barn owl to serve as a surrogate parent to prevent them from becoming imprinted on human begins, Randazzo said.
A video of Moore feeding the owl chicks can be seen at http://tinyurl.com/3kzeol6.
Updates on the baby barn owls will be made at www.Facebook.com/NorthwestRaptorCenter.
The center is seeking online donations to support the owls and other animals at the center at www.NWRaptorCenter.com.
