Momma: What th'?! . . . . Why I . . OUGHTA . . yeah you better!
this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2025
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For owls that are superb.
US Wild Animal Rescue Database: Animal Help Now
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If you find an injured owl:
Note your exact location so the owl can be released back where it came from. Contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitation specialist to get correct advice and immediate assistance.
Minimize stress for the owl. If you can catch it, toss a towel or sweater over it and get it in a cardboard box or pet carrier. It should have room to be comfortable but not so much it can panic and injure itself. If you can’t catch it, keep people and animals away until help can come.
Do not give food or water! If you feed them the wrong thing or give them water improperly, you can accidentally kill them. It can also cause problems if they require anesthesia once help arrives, complicating procedures and costing valuable time.
If it is a baby owl, and it looks safe and uninjured, leave it be. Time on the ground is part of their growing up. They can fly to some extent and climb trees. If animals or people are nearby, put it up on a branch so it’s safe. If it’s injured, follow the above advice.
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After coming face to face with our raven the other day, this momma is displaying some real nerves of steel. The magpie is smaller than the raven, but I'm also much, much larger than the LEO, and the magpie could absolutely cause her and any egg/babies some major trouble.
Even watching the little wrens on the porch fight off much larger starlings and woodpeckers, I don't know if these birds are that brave or just plain crazy when it comes to keeping the nest safe. They are not to be trifled with! Bird parents are hardcore!
That magpie is lucky our LEO’s time-traveling feet weren’t locked and loaded.
Where in from, similar behavior is called "heart," which probably loosely translates to those who don't understand as "crazy." Maybe it's similar with our fauna kindred. Do what's necessary, or die trying. I'm not sure it's anthropomorphizing, either, could be just good ol' evolutionary ID taking control, for better or worse.
On my walk this morning, I was greeted with a squirrel that stretched his neck out, almost to slinky effect, to acknowledge fur senior on a leash, and a fat dove cooing his annoyance as he swooped low across my path from his electrical line perch. At the quarter - mile crossroads, I was delighted to see a small frog hop to my midpath and planned to inspect it, when a few more steps brought me within range to do, and a yooge blue-black crow appeared from the ethers to snatch it up and fly onto an oak bought to breakfast on it. That crow was big enough to resemble a raven. Maybe it was, it happened so fast, I couldn't get a good look.
I feel we just get "surprised" when we get a real glance at what life is like for wild animals. Many of us have pets, but it's not quite the same. People with livestock have a better idea when they see things like pigs to chickens do brutal things when most of us would still consider them as pretty tame. But those guys are still domesticated, so wild animals are really going to surprise a lot of people.
The people at the clinic have been talking about herons lately. I think of them as big, beautiful, graceful birds that like fish. Now I hear the stories about how they are really dangerous to the rescuers and will go straight for their eyes to defend themselves, and I'm seeing them come up on my wildlife photographer feeds where they are killing and eating squirrels and other mammals. So many things happen in the blink of an eye and with such violence that we don't expect from the modern and removed from nature lives most of us have.
Whenever I see animals come up against each other, I just remind myself that this is a natural situation and sometimes one side will win, and others the other one will, and it's how the world keeps its equilibrium. I do want them all succeed, though there is some bias in this particular scenario, but they're all great animals with strong survival instincts. I appreciate both the fact that I don't have to be in that situation myself as an animal, and just how much fortitude and perseverance all these underestimated animals possess.
Yes. Our ancestors gave us a good life, at their expense, and imo, evolution is the reincarnation experience. As is devolution, perhaps. We forget to remember and the wheel keeps turning.
Lol I've been feeling we've gotten mired in some devolution recently. 😒
Sure. The generations who remembered passed away, those who were "too busy" or entertained to care came of age. Mutual aid, direct action.
Owl is blinking out of sync like she just woke up
I tried to extract a frame but the resolution isn't great. You can kinda see the obstruction of the pupil better than the actual membrane, but it's taking advantage of its "eye armor" known as the nictitating membrane. You may have seen it on cats before, but they have a third semi-transparent eyelid that can keep their eyes safer in a scuffle. Momma doesn't want to lose her visual on her intruder, but she also doesn't want to catch a beak to the face.
Here's a clearer image of the membrane on this Great Horned.
I love how the magpie keeps looking back at the LEO like "Is she still there...? Aww man, she is!"
I picture it as a "fake" in sports where you try to make it seem you're going one way and then pounce if you fool your opponent.
As long as momma can keep her booty planted on that nest, magpie won't be able to snatch anyone. I'm hoping poppa owl was able to get back while momma was stalling and together they were able to keep everyone safe.
The original post presented this as "caption this silly video" type of thing, but as a nice surprise most of the comments said it's not really funny, that magpie is trying to snatch eggs/babies for dinner. Magpie's gotta eat too, but we're team owl here!
Greedy maggie, go home!