SEQUIM — Nine barn owls fed by hand by volunteers with the Northwest Raptor & Wildlife Center have grown up and flown away.
The owls were from three nests. Some were freshly hatched and were immobile with their eyes still closed, said Matthew Randazzo, public relations director.
The orphaned owlets were raised by center Director Jaye Moore, raptor center volunteers and two adult surrogate mother barn owls who fed and taught the owlets to fly once their condition was stabilized.
The owls were given their freedom sometime in the past 10 days in what Randazzo termed a “soft release.”
He said center volunteers opened the flight enclosure they had used to build up the baby owls’ flight strength.
“If they needed food or a safe place to sleep, their enclosure would still be there for them,” Randazzo said.
“Almost immediately after the enclosure was first opened last week, however, two wild barn owls came by the center and started calling in the night,” he said.
“It was literally the ‘call of the wild’ and, by the next morning, all the owls had answered it.”
Moore is comfortable in saying the owlets have officially “flown the nest” and are no longer under her care, Randazzo said.
Some of the owlets were only a couple of weeks old. Others were even younger — freshly hatched — and were fed with tweezers.
Special connection
“We had a special connection to these owls because they came in so young and vulnerable and they’ve done so well,” Randazzo said.
“We’re all so proud of them.”
The care of the owls was financed entirely using local donations from the community.
The Northwest Raptor & Wildlife Center, based in Sequim, specializes in treating injured, orphaned, ill or abused wild animals and releasing them back into the wild.
No one accepts a salary for work done at the all-volunteer raptor center, which is permitted by the state and federal government to rescue and rehabilitate wild animals.
More information can be found at www.facebook.com/northwestraptorcenter.
