Each May I find myself looking out for certain wondrous visitors to our little lake: Great White Pelicans come to feast on any fish they can find. With a 9.5 foot wingspan, they remind me most of sailboats floating on the wind, or gliding on the water. When a squadron of pelicans descends to the lake or spirals up, climbing the spring thermals, time seems to stop for a space. I drop everything to watch this incredible spectacle.
Our Rites of Spring are equally important. We nurture and care for more than 90 birds during the winter months and look forward to their releases in the spring. These are our most precious rewards. To date we have released 66 birds, ranging from a tiny poor will to a mighty eagle.
The visits of Pelicans mark the heart of spring here on the Colorado Front Range. But we know that already. We have admitted our 100th bird for this year, and, with another 300-400 expected, our work has just begun.
The Babies are Arriving!
Great Horned Owlets. Our beautiful 26-year-old foster Mom Nina now has seven babies to look after. She is incredible. She feeds, nurtures, teaches and cares for these young orphans as if they were her own. During a recent attempt to take pictures of her and her brood she stepped up on a perch and began to hoot at me. She then proceeded to chase me out of her cage, to protect her babies.
More baby Great Horned Owls are in ICU and soon they will join Nina’s big family. All our young Great Horned Owls stay with us until fall, when owlets in the wild leave their parents.
Three Nestling Screech Owls arrived from Lamar, Colorado. Sadly, they lost their home when their nest tree was cut down. One of the babies appeared to be in dire need of attention; indeed, he seemed to be dying. He was the first to be examined.
Screech Owls have this great ability to turn off and play dead when the stress of reality simply becomes too much (an ability we might do well to remember in similar predicaments). So it was with this little guy, but when offered food - whoops! - our “dead” bird had no objections to eating! Even as he lay there on his back playing dead, he took and swallowed the food.
All the owlets are doing well and eating on their own and soon will go to our Foster Dad, Oscar, in a beautiful, spacious outdoor cage for further education on owl behavior and survival. They will be returned to Lamar in early fall.
Our first nestling American Kestrel arrived on May 21st – she opens the flood gate of the more than 60 young Kestrels likely to arrive this year.
You can help!
In-kind donations of saline solution (for cleaning wounds); game bird breeder and starter food for our quail; pine shavings; clean, crisp bales of straw are desperately needed. They are available at Front Range Pet and Supply in Louisville, 303-464-0956. Your donations can be dropped off at our ICU. Call 303-460-0674 for directions.
Don’t forget that we are always in need of your “gently used” items for our Thrift Shoppe located at 917 Front Street, Suite 100, Louisville. Please call 720-890-4311 for shop hours.
Monetary donations for the care and food for our birds may be sent to 2290 S. 104th Street, Broomfield, CO 80020, OR you can make an online donation.
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