“The day in late April was uninviting. It was cold, damp, raw, miserable . . . you name it. The temperature was in the high 40s, with a cold mist in the air. Mother Nature was trying to make it rain, but it wasn’t quite working. I was snug in my warm house when my phone chirped.
‘Richard, are you available?’ It was Diane Winn, co-founder of Avian Haven.
I was available, but I wasn’t really thrilled at the idea of going outside.
There was a nestling great horned owl on the ground in Bangor’s Mount Hope Cemetery, Diane told me. A couple walking in the cemetery had come across it. They had taken a photo with their phone and had sent it to her. (It was indeed a great horned owl nestling . . . not a little northern saw-whet owl, as in my previous story.)
‘When you get the little owl, be aware Mama might be nearby,’ Diane advised me. ‘Have the couple watch for her while you get the little one and put it in a box. The owl might attack, and you won’t hear it coming.’
I would be seen as a threat and, like any mom, she’s going to protect her child.
Great horned owls are quite big, hence the word ‘great.’ An adult stands nearly 2 feet tall, has a wingspan of a bit over 3 1/2 feet and weighs 3 pounds. According to a friend of mine who is a former game warden, great horned owls may attack from behind. He had once described a great horned owl as a ‘tiger with wings.’
I met the couple near the entrance to the cemetery and followed them to where the little guy was huddled against the trunk of the tree. I searched the surrounding trees and didn’t spot the mother owl. They have a habit of blending in with the background, so I asked the couple to keep an eye out while I approached the little fellow and set the cardboard cat carrier down nearby. As I got closer, the little owl snapped its beak at me, telling me: ‘Bug off. Leave me alone!’”
View the whole story here: https://bangordailynews.com/2020/12/30/act-out/this-freezing-baby-owl-was-saved-in-a-bangor-cemetery/